


just a breath away

by terribledorkness



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, This is a superhero au, also emma is a clumsy gay mess and regina knows it, and a flower shop au, can the two be combined? read and find out, swanqueen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-05-28 22:59:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15059678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terribledorkness/pseuds/terribledorkness
Summary: A woman who can grow flowers out of her hands. A boy who is stuck in the middle of a war that isn’t his. A hero who poses as a villain. A decades long fight, boiling over between two enemies, with the verdict unpredictable.And that klutz, Emma Swan, who has a terrible crush on the flower shop owner Regina Mills.(flower shop and superhero AU)





	1. prologue

**_i_ ** _._ **_regina’s prologue_ **

 

When Regina Mills was ten, she fell off the roof of a pool house.

 

She hadn’t thought of going up there herself, she would explain later. It had been a dare. Killian Jones, the resident idiot of her fifth grade class had said, _i bet that regina mills is too much of a wimp to climb up on the roof of the pool house._ And Regina had hesitated _naturally._ But then, she’d looked around as all the girls and boys in the circle had rolled their eyes, and her heart had quickened and she’d answered, _watch and learn._ Then promptly scaled the vine covered trellis attached to the nearby walls.

 

The ceiling of the pool house was glass, before turning into roof tiles _(the pool house was attached to the changing rooms, the really really high building with the extra classrooms)_ , and she started the climb to the top of the roof, the hot clay burning beneath her palms, her heart thumping in her ears as she watched her world grow smaller. She could see Killian shielding his eyes with one hand, and one of the students- that girl- _Marian_ \- yes, that was her name, watching her with an awed smile that made Regina feel like she could conquer the world.

 

So when she reached the spine of the roof, hands clutching that burning tile with a tight grip, sun beating down her back, she made a foolish decision.

 

All her other classmates were already cheering for her, Killian’s disgruntled face drowned amidst gleeful laughs at this daring stunt. But _no, Regina could do more._ She was the best in her class, daughter of Cora Mills _(her mother was the most fearless woman she knew)_ and had done gymnastics for exactly two months, a couple of years ago. She was going to walk the spine of the roof, and climb down the side of the trellis again, which hitched around the side of the glass pool roof, and onto the brick walls. It was something no one had ever dared, and would stop the likes of _Killian Jones_ from calling _her_ a wimp again.

 

So Regina stood, and the whooping from down below suddenly hushed, and Regina felt twenty sets of disbelieving eyes on her. She kept her own eyes ahead, on the trees that waved at a distance, and then on the soccer net, since the trees were moving too much in the thick summer breeze.

 

She was nearly at the end of the roof, when two things happened.

 

First, a teacher came running out, and screamed, seeing _Regina Mills,_ daughter of _Cora Mills,_ balancing on the spine of the roof, hands stretched out as though she were about to take flight.

 

Secondly, the breeze picked up, and whipped against Regina’s face, causing her to wobble.

That, combined with the loud screeching of her teacher, Regina felt her hands tremble, and her sure and steady feet slip against the shining tiles, until they finally gave way, and she landed, first on the tiles, and then sliding down them, her hands scrabbling until they bled, just until she was hanging off the side of the roof.

 

The ground below was a harsh cement, and Regina could hear the yells below, as her feet kicked in the air, and she thought _well this is what mother means when she says i should think carefully about my decisions beforehand,_ and somehow, in that moment, Regina knew that she was going to die.

 

The roof was far, far off the ground, and Regina was small and petite and easily smushed, and _she was going to die._ Her hands were slowly slipping off the edge of the roof, with the sweat slicked fingers loosening one by one, and Regina closed her eyes, blocked out the screaming that was one hysterical teacher and twenty morbidly excited ten year olds, and

 

_breathed._

 

She felt her weak grip on the tiles finally give way, and she was falling, falling towards the concrete and the children that were now scattering and--

 

She felt something pulse, something deep inside her that had been hidden away. It spread over her, like a burst of warm joy , and Regina opened her eyes to see a blue sky, and vines shooting overhead.

 

The next thing she knew, she was suspended, off the ground, her head only inches away from the cold grey stone, vines wrapped around her body with tight precision.

 

They came from her wrists, and it took the ambulances thirty minutes to cut through the wiry and thick green plant.

 

That was the day Regina first found her magic.

 

That was the day Regina’s life changed forever.

 

************

 

She’d inherited the flower shop from her grandmother.

 

Not her mother’s mother; Cora was quite mum on any family connections, leaving Regina at a loss to whether her mother’s parents were still alive. Her grandmother, her _abuela,_ on her father’s side, had died, when Regina was 27, and fresh out of law school. Her father, long gone already, had been her only connection to her beloved abuela, and so when he’d died, Cora had effectively cut her off from Regina.

  
But at the age of 27, Regina inherited _The Enchanted Florist_ and set aside everything else to grow her own flowers, the peaceful life of gardening being an enticing relief from _everything_.

 

Her mother had been furious, naturally.

 

“And how will you earn enough money to support yourself?” She’d asked, face a mixture of pale anger and calculation. “Off your _flowers?”_

 

“Daddy left me with more than enough money when he died, Mother.” Regina answered back, and Cora’s face had twitched in annoyance. It had long been a point of infuriated for Cora that her ex-husband had left Regina with a small fortune to help free herself from Cora. He’d died when Regina had turned 23, not long after the divorce, and Regina had yet to dip into that small fund. “And my flower shop will be a profitable business. More than enough money for me.”

 

“I thought you wanted to be a lawyer, Regina, we discussed this-”

 

“ _You_ wanted me to be a lawyer.” Regina had said, and it had felt so freeing, to finally bite back at her mother with words that she’d always longed to say. “I want to do this, to live my life the way I want. And you- you can’t do anything about that. You can no longer control me.”

 

It wasn’t the first time she’d said those words; but it was certainly the first time they were true, because Regina walked away from the Mills household that night, victorious.

 

_(her victory hadn’t lasted long, not nearly long enough, but at that point it had been everything to her.)_

 

She’d set up the shop quickly _(it had run into numerous problems after the neglect it had suffered after her grandmother had died)_ and soon had customers coming in regularly for her _homegrown flowers._

 

No one knew, of course, that the flowers came from Regina. They all thought she was like them; another powerless human, subject to the whims of the magical beings that either saved or tortured the city at night.

 

The incident from when she’d been ten had been attributed to a nearby superhero, because Regina Mills didn’t come from a magical family, and therefore, it was _impossible for her to have magic._

 

Only, Regina had begun practicing, after that one day. Her parents had no idea she could pluck fresh, and lucious roses off her palm with a single thought, nor that she could conjure thick ropes of vine with a simple wave of her hand. Her greatest discovery of all had left a giant dirt hole in the middle of their garden, created by one foot stomp by Regina, and yet they hadn’t found out, for a long time. Regina had thought for a quick moment, _i’m special, and i can help the city._

 

She’d been eleven, the first time she’d stepped out into the city, thick vines snaking off her arms to tie up a nearby villain. She’d left the Blind Witch to be discovered by the authorities, hard earth that she could move, trapped the witch up to her shoulders, a strong prison.

 

She’d gone back to bed and dreamed of being _good,_ something of which there was a distinct lack of in her life. Only, the next morning she’d woken up to the announcement that _Snow and Charming had done it again, they’d rid the city of a villainous creature, complete with an interview from the heroes themselves,_ and Regina, at the age of eleven, began to question good, and right, and fair.

 

So Regina had realised that nobody wanted a vine swinging superhero when they had the likes of Snow White and Charming, the powerful superheroes who dispatched of all villains with a swing of a magically powered sword. She was ignored. And she decided that if no one wanted her, then her powers could be for herself, a beautiful little secret that only she knew about. At twelve, her small garden in the backyard was blooming, bright and beautiful, and Regina was content, _finally._

 

And then, one day, Cora Mills had discovered Regina growing a sharp, thorny flower in the middle of her palm, and any and all peace that Regina had gained from her talent had disappeared with a cold appraising glance from her mother.

 

But now, here Regina was, with freedom that she’d never experienced.

 

At 27, Regina opened _The Enchanted Florist,_ and started her life.

 

************

 

It was two years later, with a successful flower shop running, and a comfortable lifestyle, that Regina had begun to wish for something more.

 

It wasn’t love; no, Regina had closed her heart off to that at the tender age of twenty. She’d had flings, girlfriends, boyfriends, but never loved another person as fully as she had Daniel _(who’d loved her and died and made her so very cautious)_ and yet she was longing for something more.

 

It was when Marian, a regular customer at the shop and Regina’s closest friend _(she was loathe to say best, because best meant something perfect and good, and good and perfect always found a way to be ruined)_ who suggested a child.

 

“You must be joking.” Regina had choked on the coffee Marian had placed on the counter, and shook her head. “No. A child. A _baby?_ ”

 

Marian just shrugged, because this was Marian, and she did everything with such a casual air that Regina often envied her for it. “You said you wanted something that wasn’t romantic. Maybe it’s your biological clock suddenly going off.”

 

Regina narrowed her eyes. “And where on Earth would I get a child, Marian? I’m most definitely not going to give birth to one, if that’s what your thinking.”

 

“Adoption, you doofus.” Marian said, and grinned at Regina, teeth flashing with assured confidence. “Just think about it, alright?”

 

She’d left the flower shop, and it was then that Regina noticed, under the counter where her hands rested, folded in agitation, that she’d accidentally grown a whole sprig of pink carnations, covering her arms.

 

A year and a half later, Regina adopted a baby boy, and named him Henry.

 

*************

  
  


  1. **_emma’s prologue_ **



 

Emma was ten the first time her parents sat her down at told her, _it's in your blood you were born to do this._

 

She didn’t realise, at that point, that that phrase would become the one that defined her life. It would wrap her in chains that she couldn’t escape, pulling her close as she strained against them, wanting to break free more than anything.

 

“Your mother and I were superheros; we left that about a year ago.” Her father, blue eyed and full of a light kind of hope, chucked her under the chin. They were sitting on a swing, in the backyard, and Emma could feel the eyes of her mother on them, looking out from the kitchen window.

 

“But I don’t have any superpowers.” Emma frowned, and then looked at her hands, as though they were supposed to suddenly emit some kind of powerful glow.

 

“Sure you do.” Her father grinned, and then his expression softened. “It’ll happen, Emma. You might not think that it will, but one day you will be able to do something wonderful. And then your training begins.”

 

Emma nodded, taking in the sentence, and let her father’s words wash over her.

 

She was born for this; to destroy villains, and bring back the peace that had evaded Storybrooke City for so long.

 

And then, three months after she talked with her father, she was sitting on her bed and her head touched the ceiling with a light bump, and she realised she could fly.

 

***********

 

It wasn’t just the flying she gained; it was also the wind, and the air, and the fact that she could pull and push it with just a twitch of her thumb. Her parents were happy with what she could do, and her mother began to sew something that Emma knew was a kind of suit that the superheroes wear.

 

She trained. A lot. With her father, she’d head into the basement, into rooms she’d never seen before, and she’d push the air back and forth, making it stronger and stronger.

 

It was hard, to control this power. Her parents may have thought that she was a natural, but Emma knew differently. Her power wanted to run free, to choose when it could make Emma float, or a breeze appear out of nowhere. It was wild, and something untamed, and Emma struggled. The expectations weighed her down, made her sink, and the air around her refused to move when she thought about it.

 

But then she discovered the sky, and realised she could escape, and suddenly everything was more harmonious. Like a balance had been reached, deep inside of her.

 

She spent the afternoons of her teenage years, moodily flitting between the clouds, or diving dangerously close to buildings. It wasn’t unusual for Storybrooke City to have people with powers testing them out; but it was an unofficial rule that those who were lucky enough to be born with powers, hid their faces.

 

Emma never quite knew why, but she wore her feathered mask with a kind of glee. Nobody knew who she was, and so she spent those years being gloriously free.

 

Only, that all ended when her father said, _your training is complete,_

 

And she was shoved out onto the battlefield, with a thin white cape on her shoulders. The only protection between her, and the villains that plagued the city. She’d been young, too young.

 

She still remembers the first villain she destroyed _(she refuses to think killed- or even worse- murdered- because that makes her remember that they were people like her, with normal lives who dabbled on the edges of darkness at night and she can’t do that, she can’t.)_ She was fourteen, at the time.

 

His name had been Pan, and he’d been a minor villain, with a growing influence over the slums of the city, a little ragtag group of boys doing his bidding. Nothing serious; but Emma had chosen him as her first target. They’d fought, and Emma had easily overpowered him, delivering the final blow with a strong blast of air that had sent him toppling over the edge of the bridge they’d been fighting on. And for some reason, she thought he’d just pop right up again, and run away. She didn’t think he’d-

 

She didn’t realise that he would _die._

 

Death for Emma, at fourteen, was as abstract a concept as what made her fly, or why she was chosen for this. She didn’t understand it; locked it in the back of her brain so she didn’t have to listen to it. Pan toppled over the edge of the bridge and Emma thought he’d live.

 

She’d seen his face, as he landed on the rocks below; the blood and the hard cold _smack_ that his body made. Emma had stared for a while, stared at the surprised expression that would forever be frozen on his face. Then she’d flown home, and collapsed as she flew through her bedroom window.

 

She didn’t talk to her parents for five days after that.

 

She hated them, sometimes, as a child. She’d killed her first villain at fourteen, and had been well known in the city as a favorite superhero at the age of sixteen.

 

She’d been fourteen, and a kid, who thought flying was cool and that she was going to save the world.

 

And then she grew up.

 

***************

 

As soon as Emma had turned eighteen, she’d been out of her parent’s house, away from them. Running away, far away from what her parents expected from her. She’d snuck out, through the window, backpack snug against her thick hoodie. Then she’d soared into the clouds, and for the first time in years, she’d felt that burden of expectation slip off her back and she could _breathe_.

 

Her parents lived far enough away from Storybrooke City; far enough that Emma could hide in it’s heart, and never be found.

 

Emma White disappeared, and Emma Swan arrived.

 

She found a job, and worked her way into the police force. She’d stopped being a hero long ago; the Swan was gone and dead, only alive in superhero lore. She preferred it that way, because if she ever returned to that, it meant that she was accepting what her parents had forced her into, something which Emma intended never to do.

 

Only, when Emma was thirty-one, the Evil Queen appeared, and Emma realised that the city needed the Swan again. The Evil Queen was a villain that the city had never seen before- she didn’t have a clear motive that pointed towards any evil plans. Instead she destroyed whatever got in her way, and _no one could figure out what she was trying to get._ She was dangerous, unpredictable, and Emma knew that she could stop her.

 

So she donned her suit, worn with time, and flew out to meet her monster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just going to say; the enchanted florist is an actual flower shop name, I believe, I was not witty enough to make that up by myself. But, it's perfect for this story (i mean come on its just so good) so. kudos to whoever was punny enough to make up such an AWESOME flower shop name I am in awe. 
> 
> anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! More chapters to come, in the following days (weeks?). Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**_iii. emma and her unbearable klutziness_ **

 

Emma Swan first meets Regina Mills on a muggy September afternoon, when Emma bursts into the shop looking for a bouquet of flowers for her girlfriend. 

 

“She likes-- she likes roses.” Emma says, desperately casting around for inspiration. “Today is our two year anniversary, you know? I-- I completely forgot, and we meet for dinner at seven and this was supposed to be something special and- ” She runs a hand through her hair, and the assistant at the desk looks at her with faint pity. “Roses. Who doesn’t like roses?” 

 

_ (she later finds out that lily was, in fact, allergic to roses.)  _

 

“You say this is your two year anniversary?” The assistant asks, and Emma squints at the name badge. It reads  _ sidney glass  _ and Emma glances at the man again. 

 

“Yes, yes it is.” Emma replies, and walks over to where she sees a pile of dark red roses. “This one looks-  _ Ooof- _ ” 

  
A loud clatter fills the small shop, as Emma trips over a bucket of water, and topples a display of flowers, in her haste to get to the roses. Her face morphs into one of horror, and she immediately stoops down to help Sidney, who is already on the floor, the annoyance on his face as clear as day. 

 

“I’m so sorry.” Emma apologises, wincing as her knees land directly in the puddle of water. “I wasn’t watching where I was going and-” 

 

“It’s fine.” Sidney replies, and waves her off. “Look, come back in an hour, I’ll have something for you then.” 

 

“ _ Thank you. _ ” Emma says, with desperate relief. She gets off her knees, and backs towards the door, about to bolt out. 

 

Only, it seems that luck is most definitely not in her favour, because just as she reaches the door, about to turn around and exit the shop, the bell tinkles, and she collides into a person, holding about five heavy boxes. 

 

Emma goes flying, as do the boxes, and she lands, back splashing in the water. The other person also falls, boxes tumbling around them, and when Emma looks up, she is met with a very angry face of one beautiful woman. 

 

Now, Emma’s never been great around angry women. And she’s even worse around beautiful ones. 

 

“Hi.” She stammers weakly, and pushes her hands against the ground, before wiping them on her jeans. She then sticks it out, offering it to the beautiful angry woman on the floor. 

 

The beautiful angry woman ignores her. 

 

Well. 

 

“Look where you’re going, will you?” Beautiful angry woman snaps, and lifts off the ground in a smooth movement that Emma did not manage at all. “Why were you trying to--” She shakes her head. “Never mind.” 

 

Emma bends down, gathering a box in her hand before offering it to the woman. “I’m sorry.” She replies, and backs away, almost into Sidney who has been watching from a safe distance, a vaguely amused look on his face. “I-- I just came for some flowers.” 

 

The other woman snorts. “What else?” 

 

Emma flushes. “Well, I’ll be going then. I’ll be back in an hour?” She asks Sidney, who nods, and Emma walks past, and out of the door. She glances back, through the window, clustered with various colorful flowers, and catches the woman’s still mildly annoyed look, as she stares right back at Emma. Emma flushes, and quickly walks away, hands shoved in her pockets. 

 

She’ll be back in an hour, and Emma’s not sure whether or not she wants the woman to be there. 

 

***********

 

Emma returns to  _ The Enchanted Florist  _ in forty-three minutes and five seconds. 

 

“You’re a bit early.” 

 

Emma jumps as she enters the shop, and  _ oh  _ the beautiful angry woman is now standing behind the counter. Emma realises that she must work there, and that the boxes she knocked over would have been things for the store. She blushes. 

  
“Er- just- just wondering if the bouquet had been finished?” 

 

The beautiful, no longer angry, woman raises an eyebrow, and Emma steps closer to the counter, eyes darting down to the nametag pinned to her white blouse.  _ Regina Mills.  _ Somehow it fits her perfectly. 

 

“Well, you’re in luck.” Regina replies, and she stalks off towards the backroom, leaving Emma nervously shuffling her feet. 

 

_ Damn.  _ Is it bad that she’s already got a ginormous crush on this woman when  _ tonight is her two year anniversary that she forgot about?  _

 

The answer is there, in the back of her mind, but Emma pushes it back, and waits until Regina comes back, a large bouquet of the prettiest roses that Emma has ever seen, arranged in a delicate fashion amongst sprigs of….whatever that is. 

 

“Romantic.” Regina notes with the slightest hint of dryness. Emma takes the bouquet from her, the hard clump of nerves in her stomach unraveling, as she realises that she will, in fact, have something for Lily tonight. “Who’s it for?” 

 

“My girlfriend.” Emma replies, and awkwardly shifts the bunch into the crook of her arm. “It’s our two year anniversary tonight.” 

 

Regina’s eyes twinkle ever so slightly. “Sidney told me that you’d forgotten.” 

 

“Uh-” Emma hates the way that the blood immediately rushes to her face. “Yeah. It’s been stressful...at work.” 

 

“What do you work as?” 

 

“I’m in the police force, actually.” 

 

Something dims in Regina’s gaze, and she nods, briskly. “That’ll be fifty six dollars.” 

 

The end to their rather awkward conversation is abrupt, and Emma wonders what it was about her job that seemed to have ended the conversation. She doesn’t think that the flower shop is in any danger of being under scrutiny with the police, but she shrugs, and hands over her credit card. 

 

“I-- I was busy.” Emma blurts out, as Regina swipes the credit card. The woman looks up, sharply. “With work, I mean. That’s why I forgot the anniversary.” She clarifies. 

 

“I understand that.” Regina replies, and her voice has softened. “Things get particularly hectic around here during Valentines Day, and I’ve forgotten important dates on more than one occasion during that time.” 

 

Emma thinks about the fact that it’s not been her actual  _ job job  _ that’s been keeping her so busy- rather the fact that she’s had to spend more nights out across the city as  _ Swan  _ because of the bane of her existence, the Evil Queen. But, she can’t tell anyone that. Not ever. 

 

“Uh- well.” Emma clears her throat. “Thank you, I guess, for the-- the flowers.” She lifts the bunch, and for some reason she’s blushing again, and Regina is looking at her, and--

 

Emma rushes out of the store before she can say anything stupid. 

 

It’s only later that night, her hands fumbling in her purse for her credit card, heart heavy with a newly ended relationship  _ (and dress soaked because of the wine lily threw at her)  _ that she realises she left her credit card at the shop. 

 

************

 

“Hello, what can I- oh, it’s you.” 

 

Emma scratches her head awkwardly, and loiters around the edge of the shop. Regina is looking at her, and  _ again  _ there is a slightly humorous twist to her mouth. 

 

“I left my credit card behind….last time.” Emma says, and Regina nods. 

  
“Yes. That was two days ago, wasn’t it? You sort of ran out before I could say you’d left your card on the counter. I’d have thought you’d come sooner.” 

 

Emma feels herself go red, and  _ fuck  _ she knew she should have come sooner. But she didn’t want to seem desperate or like she wanted to see Regina, so she’d held out, hoping that Regina would actually keep the card safe. 

 

_ It was so very stupid  _ however, because Regina was the owner of the flower shop, and that was all. They’d barely even talked, and yet here Emma was, behaving as though she were a seven year old with a crush. 

 

“Here.” Regina leans over the counter slightly, a little bag encased in her hand, card shining through the plastic. Emma darts over, quickly, and takes it, stuffing it in her pocket. 

 

“Thanks.” Emma says, and then coughs, looking around. There’s a pause, and then Regina says- 

 

“Do you want to buy something?” 

 

“Oh!” Emma jumps, and then blushes again. “Uh, yes. Yes, actually.” 

 

“For your girlfriend?” Regina asks, and Emma feels her heart drop. 

 

“Um, no. We broke up.” 

 

“On your-” 

  
“Yes, on our anniversary.” 

 

“Oh.” Regina pauses on the word, and it echoes through the room. “I’m sorry.” 

 

Emma nods her head, a bit more tightly. “I think I’ll go for--” 

 

“For what occasion is it?” Regina interrupts, and she walks around the counter to stand before Emma. 

 

_ Shit.  _ There was no occasion, not unless that occasion was “ _ Emma Swan is a massive idiot because there is no occasion and she’s only buying flowers so she can talk to the pretty lady.”  _

 

“Uh-- funeral.” Emma says before she can think, and then winces, because do you even bring flowers to a funeral?

 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Regina’s eyes soften, and Emma relaxes, because  _ yeah  _ she can do this, she can spin the whole  _ i’m grieving for a close...relative  _ thing. “May I ask who it was?” 

 

“Dog-- Uncle. Uncle...Dog. The uncle of my...dog.” Emma blurts out, and then clenches her fists at her side, in an effort to stop the intense desire to use those lovely superhero powers she’s been gifted with to fly far, far away. 

 

“Right.” Regina’s mouth twitches, but her eyes give nothing away, and she points towards a bunch of lilies. “Lilies are often used for funerals. Shall I…?” Her sentence trails off, and Emma nods. 

 

“Yes. Yes, that’s fine.” 

 

“Would you like me to arrange them?” 

 

“Uh- no. Just the lilies.” Emma closes her eyes as Regina turns around, gritting her teeth. Opening them again, she moves towards the counter, and brings out her credit card. “How much will that be?” 

 

“Twenty-five.” 

 

Emma hands her card over, and as soon as she has the lilies in her hand again, walks as fast as she can for the door. 

 

“Wait-” 

 

Emma whips around, and Regina is moving around the counter, Emma’s card in her hand. “Don’t forget this.” She says, and there’s a definite hint of a laugh in her voice. 

  
“Oh,  _ god. _ ” Emma groans, and takes it. “Thank you.” Their fingers brush as Emma takes the card, and for a moment, they both stand still. 

 

“No problem.” Regina then replies softly, and chuckles. “Come back again if you ever need flowers. I’d be happy to assist you.” There’s a smile in her voice.  

 

“I will.” Emma says, and then flushes, darting out the door and clutching the lilies tight to her chest as she walks back to her bug. 

 

**************

 

Emma’s back at  _ the Enchanted Florist  _ again, after that day, and then a few days after that. She and Regina establish an easy kind of friendship- with Regina’s eyes glinting knowingly as Emma flirts  _ (or tries to)  _ and she flirts back. By her fourth visit, Emma’s verging on asking her out- but something holds her back. She decides to wait a few days, for the bouquet she’d bought recently  _ (citing her niece’s fifth birthday)  _ to wilt, before heading back. Of course, her patience had run out faster than the flowers had died, so on her lunch break from work, Emma finds herself standing outside the cheery little shop, fiddling with her uniform uncomfortably. 

 

She hadn’t meant to come, looking like this. She’s well aware a lot of people are wary of cops; and judging by Regina’s reaction when she’d first mentioned her job, the woman was wary of them as well. But here she is. Emma takes a deep breath, and takes a step forward. 

 

Regina’s not at the counter; in fact, no one is, and Emma’s heart drops. She’s about to walk out again, when a little voice stops her. 

 

“Are you a police officer?” 

 

Emma spins around, and there’s a little boy in front of her, brown hair neatly combed and parted with gel in such a way that Emma’s sure the boy couldn’t run a hand through it if he tried. Emma towers over him, but the boy stares up at her, hazel eyes sparkling. 

 

“Uh yeah, kid, I am.” Emma says, running a hand through her own hair. “You- uh- looking for a cop?” 

 

The kid shakes his head. “Nope. But I’ve always wanted to meet one.” 

 

Emma nods, slowly, not sure how to respond. Then she crouches down by the kid. “Hey, where are your parents? Are you here by yourself-” 

 

“Henry?” 

 

Regina’s voice stops Emma, and Emma shoots up off her haunches, standing stiffly upright. Regina comes into the main shop area, from the backroom, dusting her hands as she enters. “Henry where did you put- Emma!” 

 

There’s surprise in her voice, and Emma ducks her head, shuffling slightly. “Hi, Regina.” Emma says, and waves her hand, before faltering half way through the wave and shoving her hand back in her pocket. 

 

“Uh-” Regina looks slightly flustered for a moment, reaching a hand up and smoothing her slightly frizzy hair, before looking down at the boy tugging at her hand. “I- Emma. This is my son, Henry.” 

Emma’s heart drops at the word  _ son,  _ and she feels herself turning red. Of course,  _ of course of course of course,  _ she has a son.  _ Emma Swan, you colossal idiot.  _ Emma curses herself.  _ That means there’s probably a husband as well. Idiot, idiot, idiot.  _

 

“Mom?” Henry asks, and Regina looks down, face immediately softening. “Can she come paint with us?” 

 

Emma notices the painting smock that is covering both Regina and Henry’s clothes, and has to repress a smile at the streak of blue paint that is revealed on Regina’s cheek when she turns her head back to Emma. “I’m afraid not, sweetheart. Emma’s here for some flowers, and she probably has a very busy day.” Henry makes a face, and Regina looks uncomfortably at Emma, aware that she can’t give her son what she wants by asking a customer to come paint with them. Not that Emma would mind, but, well, she’s on her lunch break and she’s only got fifteen minutes left. 

 

Emma shrugs, but winks at the kid. “I’ll come back some other time, how about that kid?” 

 

Henry looks at her steadily, before his face lights up in a grin. “Yeah. You can draw me a police car, okay?” 

 

“Okay, kid.” Emma says, with a laugh. Henry nods approvingly. 

 

“Henry, dear, why don’t you go to the back and continue your picture?” Regina says, and Emma shoots her a smile, which Regina returns. 

 

Henry gives Emma’s uniform another awe struck look, before grinning at her. “Alright. Bye Ms. Police Officer.” He then skips back into the next room, and Emma is left alone with Regina. 

 

Regina immediately springs into action. “Right. Sorry about my son, he’s quite curious. I assume you’ve come for...flowers?” 

 

“Uh- yeah.” Emma shuffles slightly again, and Regina’s eyes are blank as she turns away from Emma to get an array of different options for bouquets. She glances at Regina’s left hand- something she’d done multiple times already, just to check, and since she finds no gold band there, decides to take the plunge. “So is there….a Mr. Regina?” 

 

She immediately cringes at her question, and Regina’s eyes spring to life, mirth shining in them. She keeps her face completely straight, however. “No, there isn't. I adopted Henry.” 

 

“Ah.” Emma says, and then because she can’t keep her big mouth shut, she says, “Good.” 

 

Regina’s cheeks tint pink. “Good, yes. I suppose.” 

 

There’s a slight pause, before Emma starts again. “So how was your day?” 

 

Regina smiles. “Well I just spent the entire day painting and gardening with Henry, so it’s going well. How was yours?” 

 

“Just a regular day at the station. I’m pretty tired though.” She admits. 

 

“Staying up too late?” Regina asks absentmindedly, before pointing at a bouquet she’d brought out. “This one nice?” 

 

Emma nods, as an answer to the bouquet. “No- it’s-” She freezes. She can’t exactly say  _ i’m actually a superhero who has to deal with a frustratingly mysterious supervillain almost every night,  _ so instead she says, “Just some….extra night patrols.” 

 

Regina clips the stems off the bouquet, her eyes shadowed. “See anything unusual? Like...the superheros?” 

 

Emma allows a smile to edge on her face. “Well, yeah I guess. I’ve actually seen the Evil Queen in action before.” 

 

Regina stiffens, and her hair falls in front of her face, hiding her expression. “A dangerous villain.” 

 

Emma shrugs, and thinks about the enigma that is the supposedly worst villain of the century who has never actually hurt another person. Her story is built on exaggerations and theories, and Emma’s only ever there to stop the demolition of a building, or the threatened kidnap of some high up city official. “I guess.” 

 

This gets an odd reaction from Regina. She whips her hair out of her face, eyes blazing, scissors half held up. Emma takes an involuntary step backwards, startled by the way that the woman in front of her changes completely. She shouldn’t be this  _ (turned on)  _ intimidated by a petite woman in a painting smock with a splash of blue paint on her cheek- but she is. “You guess?”

 

Emma shrugs, watching the scissors. “I- uh- don’t know much about her, but she doesn’t….” Emma shakes her head. “Never mind.” 

 

Regina watches her for a while, before going back to arranging the flowers. “I’ve never heard anyone say ‘I guess’ when told the Evil Queen is dangerous.” Her voice is softer, and Emma frowns slightly, just--  _ wondering.  _

 

“I like to think that she’s not that bad.” Emma admits. “That maybe she’s--” She hesitates. “Maybe she’s actually just another person, who has an apartment, and a job and-” 

 

“Wanders through the city at night, terrorizing innocent citizens.” There’s dark humor in Regina’s voice, and Emma’s mouth twitches into a reluctant smile. 

 

“Yeah, and that I guess. But I tend to believe the best in people, so…” She trails off. “I’m probably wrong.” 

 

“Yes.” Regina’s voice is soft, and full of some kind of emotion Emma can’t identify. “Yes you probably are.” 


	3. Chapter 3

  1. **_regina and something called hope_**



****

She says goodbye to Henry, very carefully. “I love you.” She says, and Henry’s eyes are wide as they dart around. She touches a finger to her lips, and Henry nods, before taking his own, deep breath. 

****

“I love you too, Mama.” There are frightened tears in his eyes, and Regina wishes more than anything that she could hug her son, to ward off the fears that Cora has put there. But no, she’s got to be careful, because if she shows too much emotion, too much care, Cora might increase the things she asks. 

****

Henry opens his mouth to say more, but Regina mouths,  _ she’s still listening,  _ and fumbles for her son’s hand, before squeezing it.  _ I love you so, so much  _ she mouths again, and Henry nods, before trudging up to his room for the night. His little shoulders are slumped, and Regina inhales deeply, trying to get rid of the thick tears that are rising. He shouldn’t have to worry for her; shouldn’t have to worry about Cora taking him away from his mother. Alas, this has become their normal, and the fear and pain, instead of lessening, only increases. 

****

Regina turns around, and walks into the study. “What do you want tonight, Mother?” She asks, and in an instant her mask is in place, locked and ready for the confrontation she’s come to expect whenever she knows her mother is listening in. 

  
Her mother turns around from where she’d been examining the stack of books on Regina’s desk, a mildly disdainful look already etched upon her features. It’s like this a lot of the time- Cora will arrive out of the blue, wait in the study as Regina puts Henry to bed, and then give her a task. It’s not a good way to live, and Regina has no way of predicting Cora’s patterns apart from that she usually only comes once a week, and never on the weekends. “I’m glad you asked.” She says, and sits on Regina’s desk chair, tapping a finger against her cheek as she leans against her hand. “I need you to break into Gold’s office tonight. Plant some bugs; I’m certain he’s carrying on an affair with his intern- this will prove it. A scandal like this could end him, you know.” 

****

“Yes Mother.” Regina’s heart quickens, because she knows what her mother will ask next, knows what she will be forced to do. 

****

“Then make your way a couple of streets over and….” She pauses before continuing. “Wreck the playground. I have a few plans, and building a new one could be good to add to my campaign.” 

****

Regina’s heart sinks; Henry loves that playground. “But Mother-” She begins to protest, like she does every night, but her mother holds up a warning finger. 

****

“Remember, Regina. One little rebellion, one tiny word against this all, and everything you love will be destroyed. And all you’ll be left with is me.” Cora’s face is mocking, and every word is sprinkled with heavy meaning. “Come along, dear. You’ve got a part to play, and I have a city to manipulate.” 

****

Regina closes her eyes, biting her tongue so that sharp pain filters through her. She knows exactly what will happen if she disobeys her mother, knows exactly how her mother will strike so that it hurts Regina the most. She nods, stiffly. “Yes Mother.” Her voice is cold, and she allows the numbness to settle in her eyes. 

****

“Good.” Cora gives her a vicious smile. “I’ll stay here with Henry then, for tonight. Don’t worry, no harm will come to him while you’re gone. His grandmama will keep him safe.” 

****

Bile rises in Regina’s throat, and she resists the urge to allow the poisonous vines she’s spent years cultivating to rip out of her wrists and curl around Cora, squeezing until there’s no life left. But she calms herself; she is not a killer. She’s done many things, horrible things at the behest of Cora Mills, Mayor of Storybrooke City, but she has yet to take a life. And she’ll be damned if she turns into one now, not with how she’s trying to fight, for Henry’s sake. Her mother will not be the one to finally turn her into her monster. 

****

Not yet. 

****

***************

****

The Evil Queen, as she’s been dubbed by the city, or more accurately, by  _ her own mother,  _ is a fearsome villain. As far as the city is concerned, she’s killed dozens, and has some mysterious grand plan to take over Storybrooke City, with the only person able to stop her being the Swan. Nobody knows what that plan is, or what she really wants, and it makes Regina sigh with exasperation. 

****

She’s gotten used to picking up newspapers, with headlines like  _ Evil Queen going next for Storybrooke Bank?  _ splattered across the pages. Crude cartoons and blurry pictures that only just manage to capture her likeness are also often included, and it’s become the norm for Regina, to just silently flip past the first page of the newspaper. 

****

She knows exactly why Cora uses Regina; because Regina is powerful, and provides popularity for Cora’s leadership. After all, who doesn’t like a mayor who manages to thwart the plans of the Evil Queen by moving documents to a secure place, the night before the Evil Queen trashes the Mayor’s office? Cora uses her, deliberately like a sharp tool, to point out the weaknesses in Storybrooke, only for Cora to save them all. 

****

Cora is a hero; Regina is a villain with a double life. And she can’t do anything about it. 

****

The only person who gives her hope is  _ The Swan.  _

****

Regina wasn’t too fond of her, at first. A feathered woman in a cape, soaring through the clouds, whose appearance prompted newspapers to gleefully begin predicting Regina’s death? No one would be particularly euphoric about that. And on top of that, she was goofy; had tripped over a small rock on the ground the first time she and Regina had faced off. So at first, Regina had thought that she was another superhero, with a big name and small talents. 

****

There had been a few before her, after all. First, that pickaxe swinging giant who went by the name of Grumpy, and then after that, that soppy one- the Huntsman; both she disposed of easily, leaving them humiliated as they swung from vines attached to the mall entrance, in only their undergarments. It was a fine way of getting rid of enemies; all the men who challenged her seemed to have  _ (unsurprisingly) _ large egos, and a ridiculously small sense of humor. Their pride won out in the end, and they never bothered Regina again on her midnight rampages through the city. 

****

But the Swan….she had proved herself different from the moment she’d met Regina. For one, she’d actually managed to land a blow on her, the harsh buffet of wind pushing Regina off the edge of the building she was standing on; the vines she conjured her only saving grace. Soon, as the newspapers plastered pictures of their ‘epic’ fights across the front pages, the Swan had become a legend, having apparently come back from ten years of anonymity. Regina vaguely remembers the Swan at the age of eighteen; of course she’d been too caught up in the world that Daniel offered to her to notice any superheros. 

****

But the fights exhilarate Regina, because there seems to be someone out there,  _ someone  _ who can stop her- and then, by extent, stop Cora. And Regina knows, she knows that if Cora ever asks something impossible of her, the Swan will be there to stop her. 

****

***************

****

Regina’s at the playground, and already, the vines are wreaking havoc on the old playground. She’s currently busy ripping the swing set apart, when a voice speaks behind her. 

****

“Wow, okay. This is really a whole new low for you.” 

****

Regina smiles, her back still turned to the caped hero behind her. She flicks the vines back, and they recede, curling around her arms. They look poisonous there, settling like vicious snakes, and she hates them with a passion. Once upon a time, beautiful flowers had grown there, blooming from her palms with magic, and then slowly, as her mother had taken control, they’d turn darker. All those beautiful flowers- those daisies, roses and carnations had withered away, and the vines and stalks and sharp flowers were all she had left. She no longer grew small bunches of flowers for her shop; that was impossible, unless customers wanted dark roses dripping with a kind of venomous poison. Her talent had become her prison, twisted and changed like her, as she settled deeper into her role.

****

No, these days, the only person who could coax a pink or blue petaled flower out of her was her son, and he was too afraid to. 

****

“None of your concern, dear.” Regina replies, and then turns around, the skirts swishing around her. The dark fabric is heavy, and hot, but it serves her well. Most people are too distracted by the expanse of skin she allows to be on display than try and discern her face beneath the mask she wears. 

****

Swan looks her directly in the eye. “A children’s playground?  _ Really? _ ” 

****

Regina swallows her own discomfort. “It will prove useful to my final plan.” She says, a throaty chuckle following her sentence. She’s found that the words  _ final plan  _ tend to scare off anyone who dares ask her what she’s doing. It’s even stopped Swan from questioning her, a couple of times. 

****

There’s a silence, and then someone wheezing interrupts it. Regina is taken aback to see that the Swan is doubling over with laughter, and immediately, Regina allows the vines to snake off her wrists. 

****

“What? What is it?” Regina demands, and the Swan holds up a gloved hand, body still shaking. 

****

“I’m sorry, but in your real life, have you had a bad day or something? I mean, it must have been a bad day.” 

****

Regina stiffens; it’s rare that superheros and villains ever acknowledge their lives outside the saga that is their  _ epic fight.  _ If a villain or superhero ever does have the knowledge of the other’s identity….terrible things happen to people who seemed normal just a minute ago. 

****

“A….bad day?” Regina scrunches up her nose, and thinks back. Her day had been quite nice, actually, omitting the horrible weight of the knowledge that Cora would inevitably summon her that night. Emma- sweet, awkward and infuriatingly charming Emma- had visited the shop again, this time citing the need for flowers for her aunt’s wedding. 

****

_ Emma _ . Regina likes Emma, who has come to her shop a total of eight times now, each time for a bunch of flowers. They usually end up talking, however, for a few hours, and Regina is under no illusion that Emma is there for the flowers. After all, who needs to buy flowers eight times in under three weeks? But it’s fun, and flirtatious and while it will come to an end, eventually because Regina can never let anyone get close to her again- 

****

“Yes, a bad day.” The Swan’s voice interrupts her musings, and Regina shakes herself, glad that the dark hides the blush she is sure is rising on her face. 

****

“No.” Regina says, and the vines recede ever so slightly. “No, not at all.” 

****

“It’s just that I can’t think of any other reason why a big bad supervillain like you would go and rip up a children’s playground.” There’s still a hint of a giggle in the other woman’s voice, and Regina grimaces.    
  
“My dear it’s all part of my…” 

  
“Big scary, super evil plan, yeah I know.” The darkness hides the woman’s expression, but Regina’s fairly certain that she’s rolling her eyes. 

****

Regina doesn’t like the laughter in the woman’s voice, and she can’t reveal to much information about her own life, so she stomps her foot,and a hole appears beneath the Swan. Only, as usual, the Swan hovers above it, and waves her hand, sending a blast of cold air towards Regina. It rushes right into her, but isn’t strong enough to push her off her feet, and Regina frowns at the Swan. 

****

“Is that really the best you’ve got? That little huff of air?” 

****

“You’re the one destroying a children’s playground for your superbad evil plan.” The woman’s voice is now edging on whining. “You really must have had a bad day to be this petulant.” 

****

Regina sighs, and whips the vines towards the Swan. One thorn nicks the edge of the woman’s cape as she shoots up into the air, and above her, Regina hears an annoyed sigh. 

****

“Oh come on. That’ll stain!” 

****

“You wear all white, what did you expect, fighting a woman who controls nature!” Regina calls up, where she sees a white figure glowing in the moonlight. 

****

“I’m pretty sure you did that on purpose.” The Swan lands in front of Regina, only a few feet away, and Regina sees the purple stain from the poison spreading in a circle over the Swan’s white cape. “You could have gotten closer to my skin before I flew away.” 

****

Regina shrugs, and then, remembering what she’s supposed to be doing, whips the vines around again, which the Swan dodges and weaves under. When she pops back up, there’s a slight breathlessness in her tone. 

****

“Now come on. I thought we could have a nice chat, you know, a one on one. Archenemy to archenemy. Figure out what’s got you all in a twist.” 

****

Regina raises an eyebrow. For all their time fighting, the Swan, while annoyingly charming and considerate, never tries to engage in a conversation longer than a few minutes with Regina. “You want to talk to a person who’s trying to kill you?” 

****

“I’ve had a really good day.” The Swan is close enough that Regina can see the wink from underneath the Swan’s mask. Her eyes, a brilliant green, shine out at Regina, something oddly familiar in them. “And I figured, if the big bad superhero of Storybrooke City is ripping apart a children’s playground, then she must be having a bad day. I’m here to help.” 

****

Regina glances at the playground. It has been well and truly demolished; only Henry’s castle, as she’s affectionately dubbed it in her head is still standing. She doesn’t want to destroy it, the castle that her son loves to sit in and read his books. It’s where he goes when he gets upset, and needs to get away from Cora, and its the one place that Regina was sure Cora didn’t know about. 

****

And now she has to destroy it on her mother’s orders. 

****

“Why are you doing this?” The Swan asks, suddenly, and Regina is shaken out of her reverie. 

****

“Sorry dear.” Her voice cracks, and Regina feels the surprise that is reflected back at her from the Swan at her momentary weakness. “I have a job to do.” 

****

Her vines whip out, sharp thorns and heavy dirt flying against the wooden structure, until all that is left is a pile of wood. There’s silence in the air, only punctuated by gasping, and then Regina realises it’s her. 

****

She’s crying, she realises belatedly, and the Swan is staring right at her, mouth gaping open. “I had a good day, and now its bad.” She croaks, and then stomps her foot, the hole in the ground opening beneath her, and closing again, over her head. She walks through the tunnels she’s constructed, and tries to stop the tears. 

****

****************

****

Later that night, skin scrubbed clean of makeup and mask and dress folded neatly in a box in the back of her closet, Regina tries to grow a flower out of her palm. 

****

It doesn’t work, naturally, because the one that emerges is dark and dripping and ugly, and Regina shakes her hand in disgust, the flower withering quickly away. Something the Swan had said,  _ why are you doing this  _ echoes over and over in her mind. 

****

_ For Henry.  _ She reminds herself.  _ I destroyed that playground for my son, for his safety. At this point, his safety is more important than his happiness.  _ That thought always makes her feel sick, because it’s wrong, and horrible, that she has to sacrifice what makes Henry happy in order to keep him alive. He’s only seven, and yet, he worries more than he should at his age. 

****

But the bigger question, why she doesn’t fight back, the question of  _ why are you doing this  _ always stays in her mind. She could fight back against Cora, without her mother knowing. She could try and get rid of her, could try and run with Henry. 

****

Something, like usual, stops her. 

  
It stops her quickly, so she doesn’t entertain those deliciously inviting thoughts. It stops her like a bullet to the brain, because Cora holds something over them, something that will leave them forever entrapped in Cora’s vice-like grip. 

  
Cora has Henry’s heart. She took it the first time Regina rebelled, no longer caring about her mother’s threats of closing down  _ The Enchanted Florist.  _ But Cora had a secret weapon. She had magic. And Regina, stupidly, had never known until then. She’d thought her mother powerless, only powerful in the terms of words and positions within the city, but then her mother had turned to Henry, only six, bag in hand as they tried to leave their house, and stuck her clawed hand into his chest, bringing out a small and glowing heart. 

****

And Regina had known then that she would forever work for Cora if that meant that Henry’s heart was never touched by her mother’s hands again. 

****

Cora had had it for nearly a year now, and Regina knows that if she ever tries to rebel again, her mother will crush it without a second thought. Regina also knows that if she doesn’t do something soon, and get her son’s heart back in his chest, the light in his eyes will dim, and fade, and he will wither away like one of her flowers.

****

And there’s no one there to help her, besides that fool, the Swan, who is her arch nemesis and therefore useful for helping everyone but her. 

****

She’s trapped.

****

**************

****

Emma stops by for her ninth visit a week after Regina destroys the playground. This time, in her hands, she has two cups of coffee. 

****

“Here.” Emma shoves the cup in her hand, and then clutches her own for warmth. It’s November, and the weather is less than delightful, with sleet falling daily on the city. 

****

“Thank you.” Regina replies, and takes a sip. “You didn’t have to get me a cup.” 

****

Emma shrugs, but her eyes are bashful, as they flicker towards the ground. “I was on my way here for some….more flowers, and I got a cup, and I thought, since I bother you so much these days, why don’t I get you one?” 

****

Regina smiles as she takes another sip, and then clears her throat. “So, what’s the occasion this time?” 

****

Emma freezes, and Regina has to stifle her laugh. “Uh- my- my- cousin-” 

****

“I must say, your family expands by the second.” Regina says wryly, watching as Emma flushes. “I’ve never met a person who buys this many flowers as you do.” She teases, and Emma goes even more red, clutching the coffee cup hard. 

****

“I have a lot of…” Emma trails off, her expression distant, before her eyes flicker towards Regina. “Look, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to meet up outside the flower shop sometime? I really-- well talking to you is nice, and I just--” She blushes. “We can meet up for dinner, or something.”  

****

There’s a pause, and Emma shuffles her feet. “I- I’m sorry, I just thought-” She flushes, and Regina is frozen and she clears her throat to say- 

****

_ No. No, I can’t- I’m dangerous- my mother- there are reasons- no-  _ Regina tries to say so many things at once  _ (memories of Daniel falling down in agony, ones that are strangely blurred and foggy like she’s tried to block them out),  _ because Emma’s wonderful, and easy to talk to, and Regina likes her; likes her in a way that could become more than a fling which is all Regina’s resigned herself to these days. But something in Emma’s eyes makes all of those worries go away,  _ (cora, henry, the fact that she’s a supervillain)  _ and she grins and replies, “Yes.” 

****

******************

“So when do I get to meet them?” Is Marian’s first question when she enters the flower shop. Regina and Marian have a standing lunch appointment every Monday and Thursday, and, guiltily, Regina can’t help but feel relieved that her rather well meaning but nosy friend hasn’t bumped into Emma yet. 

****

Alas, nothing escapes Marian’s notice, and so apparently the ‘glow’ that Regina carries is so out of the normal that she manages to deduce the cause. 

****

“Excuse me?” Regina splutters, hastily busying herself with the flowers that she has laid out on the counter. Snipping off the ends she flinches as one of them flies up into her face in her haste to look nonchalant. 

****

Marian smirks, already more than aware of what Regina is doing. “I’ve known you for over two decades, Regina Mills, and the only time I’ve seen you look vaguely this dreamy is when you were sixteen and Daniel asked you out after riding lessons.” 

****

Regina feels her poor poker face slip at the mention of Daniel- after all, Daniel was well- special. She didn’t think- didn’t realise that Emma elicited the same expression, apparently. 

****

“Uh- well-” Regina stammers, and then shakes her head. “It’s new, Marian. Super new.” 

****

Marian nods, though her eyes gleam. “Well, whoever is putting that expression on your face is worthy in my books.” She turns softer, more hesitant, saying, “I’ve been worried about you the past year, Regina. It’s just like- the fire has fled from you.” She shrugs. “You don’t have to talk to me about it, but you cannot keep this new person from me. Just give me a little bit of information, come on. “ 

****

Regina sighs, but allows a smile to form on her face. “She’s...not smooth.” Marian grins. “Possibly the most awkward person I’ve ever had trying to ask me out. She came into the flower shop about ten times before she asked me out. But she’s great. Honestly. Sweet and funny and-” Regina shakes her head. 

****

“Huh.” Marian looks at her curiously. “Yes, I do have to meet this one. Don’t you hide her from me, Regina. She’s coming over for dinner.” 

  
“We haven’t even gone out yet!” Regina protests, but allows a slight sliver of hope to enter her mind for the first time.  _ Maybe.  _

****

“Come now.” Marian says, and beckons to Regina. “There’s this great little coffee shop that’s just opened a few blocks away and I need to rant about Robin.” 

****

***************

Of course, however, her role as the Evil Queen is the constant black cloud that hangs over every smile she manages in Emma’s presence. They have a couple of dates, and it’s great, and Emma’s wonderful, but then, like usual, her mother ruins things. 

****

Not with Emma- no. Regina is very careful to keep any knowledge of Emma away from her mother. She does not need her mother to have any more leverage over her. Henry is her priority and must remain so. 

****

However, one evening out, on their third date, Regina’s phone rings, and the name reads  _ Cora  _ and Regina realises the honeymoon is over. Her mother had been oddly quiet the past few weeks, giving Regina a welcome respite from stalking the city at night as the Evil Queen. 

****

“Sorry, I need to get this.” Emma nods, and Regina feels her heart sinking as she accepts the call. 

****

“Regina. Harbour. Set it on fire.” 

****

“Wha-” Regina gapes for a moment, her face slackening, and Emma looks at her with worry. “But- I- I can’t-” She glances at Emma. “I don’t know if I’m capable of that.” She hisses. 

****

“I don’t care how you do it, Regina, I just want you to do it. And now.” Her mother says, and there’s some shuffling of papers over the phone. “Now.” Her voice is steely, and Regina swallows harshly. 

****

“Yes. Fine.” She croaks, and ends the call, allowing herself a brief moment of anguish, slumping in her chair. Emma reaches across the table, and takes her hand. 

****

“Everything alright?” She asks, and Regina feels  _ dirty  _ because this kind and caring woman is asking if everything is alright and Regina is about to go and cause more destruction. With each of her mother’s demands, Regina gets closer and closer to what she fears; the eventual day when her mother asks the impossible of her, to kill, to do something that can’t be fixed. And despite all her plans to get Henry’s heart back, Regina doesn’t have the slightest clue how. She’s so afraid, because she knows she’ll do anything to protect her little boy. 

****

“Just-” Regina waves her hand weakly and represses the sob rising in her throat, allowing the familiar indifference to settle over her. “Another demanding client. I have to go now, Emma, I’m so sorry. A huge order for flowers has just been moved up to tomorrow and I-” 

****

“Hey, no, I get it.” Emma’s tone is understanding, but the flash of disappointment is clear in her eyes. “Work is work, right?” 

****

Regina nods. Except with this, she really doesn’t have a choice. 

****

*************

“It’s cold out tonight.” 

****

This is the first thing the Swan says to her, as Regina steps out into the cold moonlight, alarms wailing, signaling the break in of the Mayor’s office. The Swan had been present the night Regina had set fire to the harbour- unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to stop the fire from spreading and now Cora had plans to build a more expensive and now  _ necessary  _ harbour that would, of course, be more under her control. 

****

“That it is.” Regina replies, and shoves the papers into the hidden pocket of her dress. Cora had requested that Regina steal some files to cover  _ something  _ that Cora did; what it was, Regina had stopped questioning a long time ago. 

****

“So the Mayor's office this time, huh? A little bit more hardcore then. Thinking about running in the next election, huh?” 

****

The involuntary chuckle that bursts from Regina surprises both of them. It’s bitter, and says far too much than it should. Regina shakes her head, trying to regain control of her feelings. “Absolutely not. Never. Besides, I don’t think the people will vote for their local supervillain.” 

****

“They already voted for Cora Mills, I think they might surprise you.” The Swan murmurs, and Regina narrows her eyes. 

****

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

****

“Cora Mills?” The Swan’s mouth twists like she’s tasted something sour. “Definitely corrupt, manipulative, too many secrets for my liking. And obviously in league with you.” 

****

The quick guess takes Regina off guard, and she takes a sharp and sudden intake of air. “W-what?” She stammers, and the Swan looks triumphant. 

****

“It’s become all too convenient for the Mayor. The precise attacks, that just so happen to coincide with our brilliant Mayor’s plans? I’ve been tracking your attacks, and her announcements, and they all line up. No one’s that good.” 

****

“You’re wrong.” Regina denies it, cursing herself internally for the surprise she showed. “Cora Mills is my enemy-”  _ partial in truth,  _ “And most definitely not in league with me.”  _ or I am being forced to do her dirty work.  _

****

The Swan stays silent, and there is a pause, as Regina contemplates escaping quickly. But something about this speaks of the hope she’s been so dearly wishing for, and so she waits for the Swan to speak. 

****

“The thing is, Queenie-” Regina makes a protesting noise, but the Swan continues. “I have something that I like to call my extra superpower. I can tell when anyone is lying. And the odd thing about your sentence there, was that you weren’t lying about Cora Mills being your enemy, but you were most definitely lying about her not being in league for you. And that presents a very interesting situation.” 

****

Regina swallows, hard, and lets the Swan continue. “So I have just one question for you.” There’s something like hope blooming in Regina’s chest, and she  _ hopes and hopes and hopes.  _ “Did you choose to be the Evil Queen?” 

****

Regina shuts her eyes, and prepares for escape. She knows she  _ has  _ to say yes, because that is what will protect Henry, what will protect everyone from Cora.  _ Yes, yes, yes,  _ she’s trying to say, but then her stomach lurches, at accepting this persona, at this horrid thing she’s become. So, instead she finds herself saying- 

****

“No.” She croaks, and something flashes in her brain, and she feels that gut wrenching weight of fear slam into her, causing her to double over in pain. In the distance she hears an,  _ oh shit oh shit,  _ which sounds so oddly familiar, so unlike the charming and masked tones that the Swan uses, and she stamps her foot down and disappears into the earth, the vines cutting into her arms. 

****  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed it!


	4. Chapter 4

**_V: emma and the sky_ **

 

Emma’s running late. 

 

In fact, as she glances at her watch as she huffs her way down the cement sidewalk, she’s ten minutes and six seconds late. 

 

It’s not completely her fault. Her usually trusty bug decided to crap out on her, and so here Emma is, scuttling down the sidewalk as she tries to get to  _ The Enchanted Florist.  _ Despite the almost combined daily exercise of being a cop as well as the local superhero, Emma needs to bend over and catch her breath when she finally arrives outside of Regina’s flower shop. 

 

“You alright there?” Regina’s voice interrupts Emma’s desperate gasps of air, and Emma jolts her head up, sweaty hair falling onto her red face. 

 

“Fine.” Emma gulps, waving a hand desperately. “I am fine.” 

 

Regina’s face is amused; Emma’s come to realise, however, that she seems to have a special face for  _ Emma amused.  _ It’s a mix between exasperation and laughter, and Emma loves it. 

 

“So, I’m assuming you ran here?” Regina continues, and Emma glances down at her now slightly damp blouse, and winces. 

 

“My bug crapped out on me and I didn’t want to be late.” Emma explains sheepishly, and then grimaces. “God, I look a mess now, don’t I.” 

 

Regina smiles, eyes warm. “It’s fine, Emma. Come inside, you can fresh up there before we go out.”

 

Emma straightens up, and Regina gives her a quick peck on the lips, wrinkling her nose. “You smell.” 

 

“Thanks.” Emma replies, rolling her eyes, before grabbing Regina and giving her another kiss, the other woman yelping in disgust as she’s pressed against Emma’s sweaty clothes. 

 

“Oh-” Regina sniffs. “You’ll pay for that.” She then takes another look at Emma. “Come on, or we won’t make our dinner reservation.” 

 

Emma follows her girlfriend inside the shop, slightly abashed at how this has turned out. They’ve been going out for two months now, and Emma wanted this particular date to be a nice one. Now she’s ruined it because of her unreliable car. 

 

Emma steps into the flower shop bathroom, carefully patting some water on her face to cool down. She looks in the mirror, patting her hair slightly, scowling as she realizes that the carefully styled locks are now haphazard and messy. She ties it up instead, sighing as she takes in her tired appearance.  _ Stupid bug.  _

 

She’s about to exit the bathroom, but when she opens it, Regina’s panicked face meets hers, and the door slams shut. Surprised, Emma takes a step backwards, before listening to Regina’s footsteps fade away. 

 

She turns the knob, opening it slightly- and hears a voice filter into the bathroom. It isn’t Regina, but rather a voice that is familiar, and sends chills down her spine. 

 

_ Cora Mills.  _

 

She tries to listen to the conversation that is going on; but it’s in hushed tones, and Emma only catches fragments of sentences like,  _ don’t say that,  _ and  _ remember what i can  _ before the words delve into a whisper. Emma is about to step outside, because if Cora Mills is here, then nothing good can be happening, but she hears Regina say tersely, “Fine. Goodbye.” Her footsteps come nearer to where Emma is, and Emma opens the door, greeted with a tense looking Regina. 

 

“Okay, okay, she’s gone.” Regina says. 

 

“What was Cora Mills doing in your flower shop?” Emma hisses. 

 

Regina gives her an exasperated look, the muted look on her face fading away slightly. “Mills? My last name? She’s my mother, Emma.” 

 

That just brings up another question, the question of  _ why did you hide me,  _ but Emma decides to leave that for another day after seeing Regina’s pale face. 

 

Emma jerks back slightly. “Huh. Didn’t expect that. She’s never mentioned having a daughter.” 

 

Regina grimaces. “Well, the Mayor of one of the largest cities in America doesn’t exactly want people to know her only child is a gardener.” The words have a hollow echo to them, as though Regina’s only repeating what’s been said to her multiple times.  

 

“She’s always talking about family.” Emma says, and feels fierce anger at Cora Mills rise up within her. “I’d have thought she’d want you to be in politics with her.” 

  
“Oh, she tried.” Regina replies dryly, looking backwards, as though her mother were still there. 

 

Emma steps out of the bathroom, leaning against the wall. “She tried?” 

  
“I was a lawyer.” Regina says, answering Emma’s question. “Before I was a flower shop owner. I preferred gardening, and running this shop, however, and so my mother threw a fit and didn’t talk to me for a few years.” She gives Emma a small smile. “It was…The last time I ever won against her. She….” Regina’s eyes look troubled. “She came back into my life recently, however. She’s still trying to convince me to get into politics as well.” 

 

“And you definitely don’t want that.” 

 

Regina casts her a slightly sardonic look. “She wants me to run for Mayor, eventually. A family legacy- and if she had her way, Henry would already be shaking hands with the rich and powerful.” 

 

Emma smiles slightly, and clutches Regina’s hand in an attempt to lift the look of displeasure on Regina’s face. “Well, if you ever did decide to run for mayor, I think you’d make a great one.” 

 

She snorts. “I hardly think the people of Storybrooke will want a flower shop owner in control of the city.” 

 

Emma feels the vaugest sense of deja-vu, remembering a similar conversation with a leather-clad villain a few weeks ago. “Well, they voted for Cora, I think they’ll surprise you.” She mutters. 

 

Something ripples across Regina’s face; its as though Emma’s deja-vu is reflected in her. “Yes...I’ve been told that before.” She answers, forehead creasing. 

 

Emma sighs, shoving her hands in her pockets. “What was your mother here for, then?” 

 

Regina doesn’t answer; instead, the dark look on her face tells Emma that this is a question she won’t get an answer to. “Alright, it’s fine, you don’t have to tell me.” Emma finally says, softly. “How about we have a night in? Go to my apartment? I’m assuming that you’ve still got the babysitter for Henry?” 

 

Regina looks at her, and something flashes across her face, as though she were making a decision. “I- no. I think I’ll take a pass on this, for now.” 

 

“On...this?”

 

“On our date.” Regina clarifies, looking away. “My mother always as the uncanny knack to ruin my day and…” 

 

“That’s fine.” Emma hurries to reassure her, before grimacing. “Is there any chance you can give me a ride to my bug though?” 

 

****************

 

With her date with Regina cancelled, Emma decides that patrolling the city as the Swan is the next best option. She’s rarely missed one of the Evil Queen’s attacks; but who knows what tonight might bring. 

 

She soars under the clouds, relishing the way the cold air bites at her, the cloak she wears fluttering behind her, a bright figure against the fading sunset. It’s been some time since she just could  _ fly,  _ without having to escape from a vine that the Evil Queen launched at her, or something else that another minor villain had decided would end her life. Flying, in her youth, had been the one way to escape everything, and for once Emma enjoys the freedom.

 

She decides, with a small smile, that she might as well check up on Regina. She flies towards the suburbs, towards the comfortable house that Regina lives in, wondering whether Regina might already be asleep. Two months in, and she’s already falling hard for Regina. She’s still slightly awed that the other woman had actually agreed to go out with her; and after that, even. 

 

Their first date, after all, had consisted of Emma nervously blabbering, before spilling wine all over Regina’s white silk shirt. Luckily for Emma, who at that point had thought she’d ruined any and all chances of getting Regina to go out with her, Regina had simply laughed. They’d gone for coffee instead in some small little shop where things had relaxed immediately, away from the fancy restaurants and easily tippable wine glasses. 

 

Emma grins slightly soppily to herself, doing a little loop in the air. Yeah, she’s well and truly mad for Regina Mills. 

 

The thing is- she’s not sure she can say the same about Regina. 

 

There’s sometimes a disconnect, in Regina’s eyes. It’s not obvious, not something that’s on her face every time she looks at Emma. But sometimes, in those quiet, soft nights, when Emma just looks at Regina and thinks,  _ this is it, this is the person i want everyday for the rest of my life.  _

 

Regina, however, in those moments just looks-

 

Blank. 

 

So, Emma, despite the fact that she’s bursting with words, doesn’t say anything. She’s afraid that if she does, whatever hope she has of getting a response out of Regina that might be the same as hers will be crushed, and Emma can’t, she  _ can’t  _ deal with that. Because that would mean that she and Regina don’t have a future, and Emma isn’t ready for that little bubble to be popped just yet. 

 

She’s not sure she’ll ever be ready for that bubble to pop. 

 

Emma sees the elegant white mansion approaching, and hovers in the air slightly, before drifting down. Is it odd to hover outside your girlfriends window at midnight, just to watch her sleeping? 

 

Perhaps its silly, but Emma worries. She hasn't truly thought of _family_ in a long time, but when she's with Regina and Henry, it makes her want it again, the all encompassing love and safety that she finds on lazy Sunday mornings, bringing coffee to Regina in bed, or indulging Henry by telling him a few made-up superhero stories as he jumps up and down excitedly. Of course, with that feeling of family, and wanting more, comes the ever present fear that Regina or Henry might be harmed by her other job, the one that has her tumbling through the sky like some misguided, latex covered hawk. 

 

It had been a couple of days ago, in fact, when flipping open a newspaper during breakfast that Emma had come across an article which listed all the superhero's whose fate had ended tragically (and there were quite a few) with their true identities being discovered and, as a result, their families being killed or hurt by their malicious super villain nemesis. It brings a certain amount of fear to the budding relationship Emma has with Regina, and a tendency to be a little bit too overprotective.

 

The lights aren’t on, and Emma lands on the balcony, her feet touching the ground with a soft thump. She pads over to the window, and to her surprise, there isn’t a familiar Regina shaped lump under the covers. In fact, there’s no one at all. 

 

It’s then that a fluttering piece of paper catches her eye. Emma picks it up, curious, and feels the blood drain from her face. 

 

**_I know who you are._ **

 

Regina wouldn’t leave a note like this- Emma knows that. There’s only one possible explanation, only one,  _ horrible, horrible  _ possibility.  It’s the Evil Queen. She’s found out who Emma is- who Emma  _ loves.  _ Emma feels panic rising in her chest, because  _ Regina’s not in her room,  _ and there’s a note outside on the balcony and-  _ oh god- _ what if the Evil Queen has Regina and- 

 

It's happened. 

 

The Evil Queen has found Emma Swan,  _somehow,_ impossibly, and through Emma, found Regina- and  _oh god Henry-_ Emma frantically dives towards the little boy's bedroom window, and too her relief sees the nightlight illuminate a very unhurt Henry, drooling away on his Iron Man pillowcase. It's just Regina who is gone. 

 

Regina. 

 

Regina, whose lips curl up in that gorgeous  _Emma you are such a dork_ smile and tends to her flowers like they were her children. Regina, who for the first time since Emma ran away from her parents, makes her feel like she has a home. Regina, who Emma adores with a wild, constant love, even if Regina might never return it. 

 

Emma gulps, and curls her hands into fists. Feels her heart turn into something that feels like a cracked stone, fear edging down the middle of it. And suddenly, a hatred blooming so bright that Emma feels lit up from the inside, as though someone were shining a light right into the very heart of her soul and saying,  _this is what you mean._

 

Emma takes off into the sky, and the sun disappears, giving into the night. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> afraid this is only a short chapter! More coming soon, like as to how the note arrived on Regina's balcony (oooo mystery) and perhaps a revelation of sorts (oooo once again more mystery) . Thank you for all of you who have been leaving reviews, kudos, and reading this fic, it truly makes writing this all the more fun and enjoyable! 
> 
> alright now I shall go and work on Regina's side of the story and try and keep the angst to a minimum (ah who am I kidding angst is my best buddy right now, prepare yourself)


	5. Chapter 5

**_vi: regina and her flowers_ **

 

Regina’s tired. 

 

Her nights as the Evil Queen, and as just Regina have begun to take their toll. When it was just Henry and her mother, somehow,  _ somehow,  _ she had been able to juggle it. Perhaps, it was because her son had always brought out the best in her no matter what, whereas with Cora, the Evil Queen was all she had in the way of protection. 

 

But now there’s Emma. 

 

Emma’s a danger, she’s someone who could ruin everything, and Regina keeps on having to stop herself from getting too close.  _ Two months is long enough _ , she’ll tell herself as she kisses Emma goodbye,  _ it’s time to let go now.  _ And then she opens her mouth to say those words-  _ It’s been fun, and I’ve liked our time together, but I have a son, and a shop and I’m far too busy so I think it would be for the best if we-  _

 

But she can’t. She sees something like  _ love  _ shining through Emma’s eyes, and her eyes will water, and she’ll want to say something else, something she hasn’t wanted to say since Daniel, but she can’t. She just feels empty. So she’s stuck in a limbo. 

 

How is it that she feels nothing at all, and yet she’s more free around Emma than she is around anyone? 

 

“Mama?” 

 

Regina is jerked out of her reflection, and glances at her son who is quietly eating his chicken nuggets across from her. “Yes, Henry?” She says. 

 

“Did Gramma come and visit you today?” He asks, a solemn frown forming on his face. 

 

Regina’s eyes water. Her little boy has seen too much, has heard too much. His empathy sometimes astounds her; with his heart outside of his body, he shouldn’t have too much of it. 

 

“Yes.” She answers, clearing her throat. “You know what that means!” She attempts to muster up a smile, but fails, miserably. “No sneaking down for some tv while I’m out, alright?” 

 

“Why do you have to go?” Henry asks, a small pout on his face. “Why does Gramma make you go out?” 

 

Regina gets up, and walks around the table, crouching down by his seat and taking his hands. “Oh, my little prince, I don’t want to go. I wish Gramma didn’t make me go. But sometimes I need to do things I don’t want in order to protect the people I love.” She squeezes his hands, and he pulls them away. 

 

“I know.” He mutters. “Gramma makes you do evil things.” 

 

Regina closes her eyes, and curses her mother, over and over. 

 

“Can Emma come over?” Regina opens her eyes to see Henry staring at his plate. “I like Emma.” 

 

Regina sighs.  _ Emma.  _ “I wish. But I don’t think that’s such a good idea  _ mijo _ .” She recalls the look of disappointment in Emma’s eyes as she cancelled- and grips the edge of the table tightly. She doesn’t want to see Emma right now, not after her mother’s reminded her of everything she has to lose. She can’t put Emma in that kind of danger. She has to end it,  _ soon.  _

 

“Fine.” Henry mumbles, and pushes his peas around his plate with his fork. “Emma would save you from Gramma, you know. She’s a superhero.” 

 

“Oh, is she now?” Regina asks, giving a dry laugh. “Did she tell you that?” 

 

Henry nods, eyes regaining some of their shine. “She told me that she flies up above the city every night, protecting it. She told me some stories.” 

 

Regina feels her lips twitch with fondness for the other woman. Henry and Emma had connected instantly, with Henry being slightly in awe of her. “Do tell.” 

 

“She told me that she fights this other supervillain, who is really a good person in disguise.” 

 

“Oh?” 

 

“She said that once, the supervillain cried, which is how she knows that the villain is good, and not evil.” 

 

There’s a flash of trepidation in Regina’s heart. It sounds oddly familiar. But no, that’s not possible. There’s no way that Emma could know- 

 

“She said that the supervillain doesn’t want to kill her either. Like, once, she was fighting her, and the supervillain could have killed her, but instead she just stained Emma’s cape. So it looked like she’d smushed blueberries on there.” Henry smiles, eyes wide. “Emma said she had to throw away her favorite cape because of the supervillain, so maybe she was evil after all.” 

 

Panic rises in Regina’s chest; no, no no- this could not be possible.  _ Emma Swan could not be-  _ Swan. Emma Swan. The Swan. 

 

But no, no! It was too easy. Emma would never make it that easy-

 

Regina freezes. 

 

Yes, of course, sweet, goofy Emma would make it that easy. Emma, whose excuses for stopping by at the flower shop were so terribly transparent, would naturally make her superhero name something so….easy to guess. 

 

_ No.  _

 

“Henry-” Regina begins, clearing her throat. “What- what else did Emma tell you?” 

 

Henry looks at her, and his eyes are wide. “She told me that she’s going to save everyone, Mama.” 

 

“Ah.” Regina says, and stands up, placing her hand on Henry’s chair for support. “Right.” She breathes, slowly. 

 

_ This can’t be possible.  _

 

Her mother’s smug face appears like some kind of fucking vision,  _ love is weakness regina,  _ and Regina gasps for air. Of course,  _ of course,  _ the Swan would find her. Of course Emma was the Swan, because why else would she want to be with Regina, why else would she try so hard when Regina can’t give anything back? This whole thing has been a lie, and what else did Regina expect? Life has never been kind to her; why would it start now? 

 

Her heart tightens in her chest, beats faster, faster and faster, and Regina feels hot tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. 

 

_ It had been a lie.  _

 

She didn’t know why she was so sad, didn’t know why she felt this way- so betrayed, so utterly, utterly betrayed. She could never find love. 

 

And there was the truth. She’d believed that perhaps- maybe, just maybe, love could be possible with Emma Swan. That they could overcome the odds, hide from her mother. Have a life together. But now, all that was left was a great, angry silence, as Henry continues to munch on his chicken nuggets, unaware of the fact that his mother is now falling deeper and deeper into the role she’s been forced to play for so long. 

 

Regina’s eyes darken. She has to go. She has to find Emma-  _ the Swan-  _ and finish her, once and for all. 

 

Once Henry is asleep in bed, and the usual protections are in place when she leaves the house (the problem with being a supervillain is that babysitters don’t usually want to babysit for you while you go and do evil things, and Regina tries to keep Cora away from Henry as much as possible), she storms up to her room, writes a note, and leaves it on the balcony. If Emma is who she thinks she is, then the Swan will find her, and they can finish this. 

 

_ I know who you are.  _

 

Regina stifles the wave of emotion that threatens to engulf her as she sees those words, because  _ why? Why Emma?  _

 

Henry’s asleep when she leaves the house, dressed up in her Evil Queen outfit. There’s something dark and burning in her chest, but it doesn’t quite reach her, doesn’t quite pull her in to the anger she knows she’s feeling. There’s a numbness in her head, as though she were detached from her own body. 

 

Emma had betrayed her. 

 

Sweet, kind Emma, who had stumbled into Regina’s flower shop and set about making Regina’s days brighter, was a lie. Instead it had been the Swan the entire time- the Swan who had found her. Regina curses herself- she let Emma meet  _ Henry.  _ How much danger was he in now because of her? A superhero, with their self righteous acts and no knowledge of what was really happening could ruin Henry’s life, could ruin everything that Regina’s worked for. 

 

Could ruin the balance she’d only just found in her life. 

 

Regina steps out onto the pathway, and for a moment, it hits her. It hits her that the woman she’s been in a relationship with for the past two months has been lying to her in the worst way possible, and that nothing was ever real _.  _ That now Henry is in danger, and that the shy feelings that Emma had coaxed out of her were nothing but useless. 

 

_ Love is weakness, Regina.  _

 

Regina grits her teeth, stamps her foot, and disappears into the earth. 

 

************

She sees Emma before Emma sees her. 

 

Regina’s waiting on a the street, right across the street from a burning bakery. Cora hadn’t asked her to do it- but this was the only way to get Emma’s attention, to get her to _fight._ Because _oh_ how Regina hates to be fooled- hates to be _weak._ She doesn’t allow people to get the better of her- no she stands up and climbs up to walk across the roof of the pool house, fights against everything that her life has shoved at her. This will be no different, because she must protect Henry, and protect herself. 

 

Emma needs to be dealt with. 

 

Regina spots the Swan flying above the fire, and a burst of air moves towards it- what use it will do, Regina doesn’t know. The fire is too bright, raging too fast, for anything that the Swan could possibly throw at it. 

 

“Where are you?”

 

Emma’s voice roars across the street,strong and suddenly she’s flying towards Regina. Regina whips the vines out, feeling them bite into her arms. Instead of feeling the usual heavy guilt that comes with it, however, she relishes in the fact that they fly off her arms towards the figure in the sky. They swipe at Emma, and Regina smiles grimly as she sees the way the tendrils lash against Emma’s face, leaving a streak of blood. She doesn’t know why this is different, why she’s feeling so  _ angry,  _ but the pit of darkness that has been tempting to fall into ever since she was forced to put on the Evil Queen’s mask has suddenly become all the more looming. 

 

“Where is she-  _ where is she? _ ” Emma turns towards Regina, and Regina is momentarily taken back by both the question and the look in Emma’s eyes. It’s one she’s never seen in the Swan’s- a look of pure and utter  _ hatred.  _ Regina tries to swallow the lump in her throat; it truly had been a lie, and the shift from the loving gaze that she was used to receiving from Emma to this cold and hard stare is like a punch in the gut. 

 

“Where is who?” Regina asks, a sing song quality to her tone. She’ll put on a show, and destroy Emma Swan once and for all. She suddenly hears her mother’s voice in her head, wrapping around her all at once at she’s struck by  _ love is weakness Regina  _ and  _ it will ruin you one day.  _ She’d never thought that her mother would be right. 

 

Emma opens her mouth to roar out whatever inane excuse she’s concocted for invading Regina’s life so harshly- so invasively. Regina fights back a shudder as she sends a hailstorm of thorns in Emma’s direction, and watches as the other woman’s eyes widen as she barely manages to dodge them.  _ I’ve never wanted to kill you,  _ Regina thinks grimly,  _ but you made me care for you and it was all a lie.  _

 

Regina is pushed back by a buffet of wind, dangerously close being smashed against the walls near to her, before she grounds her feet in the solid earth below her. There’s a pause, as Emma flits above her, and Regina regains her breath- 

 

“Where is she!” Emma says again, and her voice is dangerously close to a kind of hiss Regina has never heard before. 

 

Regina grits her teeth. “My dear, if I hurt someone you care about, I’m truly not sorry. I have no idea who you are talking about, and whoever they are, they are most likely  _ dead. _ ” She hasn’t killed anyone- not that she knows of, and suddenly Regina is assailed by memories of buildings crashing down at Cora’s behest, the earth giving way as Regina pulls from beneath it. What if-  _ what if-  _

 

But she’s blasted back by another harsh gust of wind, and is surprised as she suddenly finds herself caught up in some kind of  _ tornado,  _ unable to find Emma, unable to find the ground.  _ Well, well well. Looks like Storybrooke’s little saviour hasn’t been playing nicely either.  _ Regina sneers to herself as she tries in vain to find the ground. Then she’s being slammed, into walls, and solid, painful things and  _ oh it hurts-  _

 

_ Fuck. _

 

Regina suddenly feels a harsh pressure on her throat, and realises that she can’t breathe- 

 

The next few moments are a blur, because all Regina feels is the fact that her vision is failing, and she’s got to  _ escape got to escape from this hold this hurts please don’t henryhenryhenryhenry he can’t be alone not with cora not henry she can’t die can’t leave him-  _

 

And then the next hailstorm of vines she lashes out in desperation connect with something  _ warm  _ and  _ strong,  _ and the pressure goes away, and Regina lands, and she’s on a  _ roof,  _ the tornado having found its way to higher ground as Emma manipulated the air to take Regina way from her domain. 

 

But what makes Regina’s eyes water isn’t the sudden release on her throat, or the disappearance of the harsh winds around her, but the limp body- only a few feet away- 

 

_ No.  _

 

“Emma.” Regina rasps, and suddenly her cheeks are wet with tears because  _ not Emma.  _

 

“Emma-” Regina gasps again, and gets on to her knees, wincing at the way her body aches in ways that can only come from being slammed harshly into walls. “ _ No-”  _

 

She makes her way over, and drops to her knees, and grabs Emma’s head, which dangles limply onto her shoulder, eyes closed, harsh breathing emitted from her nose. “Emma  _ wake up _ .” Regina says, choking back a sob. She unlaces the feathery mask, tossing it to one side, and there’s Emma’s face, and  _ she’s not waking up. Goddammit  _ she couldn’t- not Emma, despite everything, not Emma who was fighting for  _ good,  _ who was  _ good,  _ who smiled and laughed at Regina like she loved her  _ even though she knew who Regina was-  _

 

“ _ Wake up you idiot!”  _ Regina says again, clasping Emma’s face between her hands, and slowly, Emma’s eyelids flutter, before taking in Regina. “Oh _you-_ __ I was so worrie-” 

 

But Emma’s staring at her with absolute horror, and Regina slowly lifts her hands off Emma’s face, and fuck,  _ fuck.  _

 

“What-” Emma croaks, and her eyes are widening as she takes in the Evil Queen’s visage up close for the first time. “You look like-” She shakes her head. “I must have hit my head.” 

 

Regina frowns for a moment and opens her mouth to ask what Emma’s trying to do- but then Emma groans and touches her head, springing Regina into action with pang of guilt. Carefully maneuvering Emma, she leans her against the wall, the other woman closing her eyes in relief as she sits up. 

 

Emma mumbles, eyes still closed. “You took her. And now-” Her breath hitches, and she blows it out, slowly. “Here I am, at your complete mercy.” 

 

“Emma,” Regina asks, and there’s knowledge dawning with a slow certainty in her mind. “Emma, who did I take?” 

 

Even though Emma’s injured, and she can’t move, the change in her face makes Regina flinch. Regina’s never been afraid of Emma, and, if she were being honest, of the Swan either- but thunder overtakes the other woman’s face in a quick flash, and her lips draw back into what could only be described as a feral snarl. “ _ Regina. _ ” She grinds out, eyes grim. “You took my girlfriend. I will  _ kill you  _ if you’ve hurt her.” And Regina doesn’t doubt the truth behind the murderous intent for one second. 

 

Regina lets out a quick puff of air, the revelation that Emma  _ doesn’t know what she is _ \- an odd mix of horror and hysteria mixing in her chest. “No,” She whispers, and her hands slowly draw back from where they were supporting Emma. “No, no  _ no. _ ” A giggle tries to make its way out, and she clamps a hand over her mouth because how could this happen? What were the exact chances that Emma Swan would run, quite literally, into Regina Mills on that day at a small flower shop hidden away on the street? What were the chances, that against every bone that screamed at her to not care about Emma, Regina would ignore them, and care so much that it hurt? 

 

What were the chances, that this ironic, stupid love would evolve, and pit them against each other. Regina trails a hand lightly against Emma's cheek, tracing the thin line that her vines left against Emma's smooth skin. Emma flinches, and Regina pulls her hand back as though she's been burnt, suddenly remembering the circumstances they are under. 

 

_Oh, I've ruined it all._

 

“What.” Emma says, and her eyes shut, in an almost lazy fashion. “You scared already?” The mocking tone that slides into her voice is dangerous, but Regina’s not afraid, not anymore, of Emma. She’s afraid of herself, because  _ oh hell  _ she has a choice to make. 

 

So the Evil Queen lifts Emma’s chin up, causing the other woman to open her eyes. “Oh, Emma,” the Evil Queen says, in a most tender kind of voice. “We’re both such idiots.” 

 

And then she slowly undoes the bow holding her mask in place, and Emma is greeted with the soft eyes of Regina Mills. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoop whoop two more chapters (maybe three i tend to overwrite) to go! Thank you again to everyone reading this story, and to the lovely reviewers who leave such awesome reviews. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one will finally see Emma and Regina confront each other...dun dun dun...as their true selves for the first time. Sounds dramatic but its basically a whole load of angsty, love lorn looks and both of them going "geez what were the chances that the two of us met and fell in love its like we're in some kind of overdramatic piece of fanfiction" hehehe. well.


	6. Chapter 6

**vii. emma and the truth**

 

When Emma was younger, before she was pushed onto the battlefield that became her teenage years, before she found out she could fly, her parents used to tell her one thing, one constant piece of advice that wasn’t about superheros, or being the good guy.

 

“There’s an easy way, and a hard way, in life, Emma. The easy way, is always the truth. If you tell the truth, you’ll find that things get a lot simpler than they seem to be.” 

 

And Emma had adhered to that. Sure, she’d had to lie by omission, about the fact that she was the Swan, or not telling her parents about her plans to disappear from their lives forever, but generally, Emma stuck to her guns and told people the truth. It had helped her out in many a situation, and Emma, with her ability to tell lies apart from truths, thought it was the one solid piece of advice her parents had actually managed to impart. 

 

But right now, as Emma sits across her girlfriend, possible love of her life, bandage smacked across her forehead where it was bashed it open against a wall by said love of her life, she thinks that the truth sucks balls. 

 

Regina cradles a cup of tea in her hands, tips of her fingers whitening with growing intensity as she presses them against the fragile china, and her lips harden into a thin line as nothing is continued to be said. Henry is upstairs, fast asleep, and a quick visit to the ER had sorted out Emma’s head injury, and the bruise blooming on Regina’s cheek had some ointment slathered on hastily. 

 

But what hadn’t been sorted out is the choking silence that is growing between the two women, each on opposite ends of Regina’s kitchen table, each of them holding cups of tea that are quickly going cold. 

 

“Your head-” Regina suddenly starts, eyes flickering up to the large bandage. “Is it-” 

 

“It’s fine.” Emma replies quietly, and the silence fills up again. 

 

Another few minutes go by, and Emma’s heart beats faster,  _ faster  _ as the clock ticks. A single chime rings out, signalling the late hour, and both women start, taking sharp breaths. 

 

“Scared me.” Emma mutters, feeling a need to say  _ something.  _   
  


Regina nods, and then her eyes flicker up to Emma’s, were they hold for one second. “Emma-” She begins, and then groans, and her head bangs down on the table. 

 

Emma starts; not only is this a very unusual act from the normally composed Regina, but it’s also the start of a conversation, an explanation, something which Regina has been unable to give so far. 

 

Regina hisses quietly, before raising her head. “Why does it-” She murmurs hazily for a moment. “It hurts.” 

 

“Yeah well this isn’t a picnic for me either, Regina.” Emma spits, and then tries to calm down before things escalate. If there’s one thing Emma’s found out about her and Regina is that they tend to bounce off of each other’s anger. Like they do when they were- were fighting underneath masks and hidden words. 

 

Regina shakes her head. “I’m going to try and explain this to you. I think you already know half of it, though.” 

 

Emma thinks back, and remembers tears slipping out from under a mask, and a villain doubling over in pain. “Oh.” She sighs, and suddenly things seem like they have a meaning. “Your mother.” 

 

“My mother.” Regina winces, and then brings out her palm. Emma watches with apprehension as a dark rose emerges from it, growing and twisting, thorns drawing attention with their dripping poison. The rose itself is ugly, rotten, and hunches over as though it were some creature clawing onto its last breath. It’s alarming, and Emma is hit by a sudden bout of revulsion that she’s never associated with Regina. This rose is unnatural. 

 

Regina herself looks at it with unconcealed hatred, pursed lips and burning eyes focused intently on the flower, as though hoping it will disappear. And disappear it does, withering away into dust, spilling onto the wooden table in a soft rain. 

 

“Oh god-” Emma breathes, horror evident in her tone, and regrets saying anything when Regina holds back a poorly concealed flinch. “Is that your power?”  _ A flower shop. I’m an idiot.  _

 

“It wasn’t always like this.” Regina’s tone is mournful, and the hatred in her eyes dies as she continues to talk. “I used to supply the flowers for my shop, you know. God, sometimes I can just  _ feel  _ them, deep inside me, just waiting to bloom.” Regina shakes her head, a rueful chuckle filling the room, and Emma imagines a different Regina, without the blank, haunted eyes, flowers springing out of her palm with just a smile. Regina continues, a wistful quirk to her lips. “Hyacinths- in a deep, deep violet, gardenias and primroses. Probably the most cliche thing in the world, but my roses were absolutely beautiful, and the most popular in my shop. Though I did have a certain fondness for my sunflowers, everyone always underestimated-” 

 

Regina pauses, as though remembering her current situation, and her face stiffens. “My mother took them from me, however. My flowers. My talent. She twisted it.” 

 

The verbal confirmation of what Emma had already guessed a few moments before writhes in her gut unpleasantly. It’s all too familiar of what had happened with Emma’s parents, of her ability having been used for something she had no wish to do. But this was even worse, because Regina’s love for her flowers, much like Emma’s adoration for the sky had been distorted, so that now only what she could create was broken and destructive. 

 

“Regina…” Emma trails off, not knowing what to say. “Is she threatening Henry?”

 

Regina gives a tight nod, before her eyes slide shut and she shakes her head a little bit. “Just talking about it makes me feel  _ sick,  _ Emma. She took his heart out of his chest- that’s her power- a year ago, when I’d attempted to run away. Before that she’d been threatening to close down the flower shop, and then she’d begun to ask me to do more and more dangerous things and I just-. She just reached in and-” There are tears gathering in Regina’s eyes, and Emma wants to hold her, wants to tell her that she’s going to fix everything. “She’ll crush it, killing him, if I do anything wrong.” Regina bows her head, hastily wipes her tears away, sniffing. When she raises her head, there’s a look of bleak sorrow on her face. 

 

“There’s nothing I can do. If I try anything, Henry will die, and like hell I’ll let that happen.” 

 

“Have you ever tried to- get it back?” Emma asks, hesitantly, and Regina’s eyes flash. 

 

“What, and risk my son dying?” The answer is quick, and it’s clear Regina’s gone over this multiple times, but there’s a pause. A thoughtful one. 

 

“She has this...vault. I remember it, from when I was younger. And I think that’s where…” Regina shakes her head, pressing her lips together as though fighting off nausea. “That’s where she’s put Henry’s heart.” 

 

“A vault. In her house.” Emma thinks it over, but not for too long. “Regina, we’re two of the most powerful people in the city. How hard can it be?” 

 

Regina looks up. “Do you really think…” Her voice trails off into a whisper, and she gazes, past Emma’s shoulder towards the stairs, which lead to Henry’s room. “My son needs his heart back, I know that. But I can’t risk- I can’t risk-” 

 

“I know.” Emma says, and leans forward, taking Regina’s hand in hers, ignoring the sharp intake of air that Regina makes at the contact. She’s surprised, in a way, that she can forgive Regina this easily. It had been much more simple, when the villain had hid behind a mask and redemption for an unknowable person was something Emma believed she could quietly coax into being. It was harder, knowing that the supervillain Emma tried to stop from pulling down buildings, creating fires and threatening a city full of people, was someone Emma loved. 

 

But Henry,  _ Henry,  _ who was without a doubt the most important person in Regina’s life was in danger, and Emma knows that she’ll always forgive Regina, and would have forgiven Regina, even if she hadn’t been coerced into becoming the Evil Queen through threats on her son's life. 

 

Emma promises, “We’re going to do this, Regina.  _ I’m  _ going to do this, so that you never have to worry about Henry again, and you can grow flowers and do what you love.” 

 

What she does not say to Regina is that she will rid the world of Cora Mills once and for all. Emma hadn’t killed a villain in many years- had avoided it with the Evil Queen and had hoped to avoid it for the rest of her life- but Cora Mills was suffocating, and slowly killing Regina, was threatening an innocent young boy, was twisting a family into a minefield, and needed to be  _ put down.  _

 

Regina’s eyes are heavy with hope, alive for a rare moment. It’s not often that Emma sees Regina so alight with emotion. “Will you?” She murmurs, and her hand clenches Emma’s. “You’ll help me? Me? After everything I’ve done?” 

 

Emma bows her head, presses a kiss on the hand that had earlier whipped her against a wall, and finds nothing but pure, unbeatable love in her heart. “For you I’d do anything.” She says quietly, and doesn’t look up. 

 

She knows if she does, she’ll only see blankness. 

  
  


*************

 

They spend the night planning. Regina has some old plans of her mother’s house stored in her attic from when there had been renovations made back when Regina had been a child, and together the two are able to locate the vault, determining it the small box that says  _ wine cellar.  _

 

Slowly, carefully, they create a list of how to lure Cora away, get past the security that would immediately alert the woman to their presence, and then get into the vault. As soon as they have Henry’s heart, the jig is up- there’s nothing more that Cora can do to hurt them. So long as neither of them have the idiocy to get near enough to Cora for her to pull one of their hearts out, it’s over and done with. 

 

Emma avoids Regina’s eyes, however, when Regina whispers, under her breath,  _ “Then what?”  _

  
Then, Emma will fucking  _ end  _ Cora for what she’s done to Henry and Regina. But, Emma knows Regina, and despite the messed up person Cora is, she’s still Regina’s Mom. 

 

Emma doesn’t know the extent of Regina’s childhood, and her relationship with her mother, but she knows it was a frequently unhappy one. And Regina, who has fought so hard to try and not get anyone killed, even with a deadly threat hanging over her head, and nightly rampages through a city where anyone could get caught in the crossfire, might not be able to deal with Emma killing someone- someone who is her mother, after all. But Emma can’t risk any sentimental feelings on Regina’s part, feelings that might crop up as Emma’s about to deal the killing blow. 

 

Cora is not only a threat to the people Emma loves, but to the people of Storybrooke. And right now, Emma needs to think for the good of all. 

  
Even if it loses her Regina. 

 

Emma can disappear again, can lose another family again. She’d done it before. She can do it again, but this time, she might not recover as she had once, when leaving her parents. This time, it might ruin her, forever. 

 

Emma’s okay with that, though. She’s had a long running problem of being the hero, and she’ll continue to play that part until she takes her very last breath. 

 

***************

Henry finds them the next morning, sipping coffee at the counter, hands millimeters apart. “Hey Emma,” The young boy says as he pads over to the counter and slips onto a stool. Emma and Regina jump, Regina retracting her hand as though they’d been doing something wrong, and Emma’s heart  _ aches.  _

 

Henry doesn’t notice anything wrong, naturally; for him, it’s just another Saturday morning with Emma around, like she’s done a couple times already. An event, which had seemed close to normal at the time. Now Emma just feels out of place as she watches Regina make Henry some toast. 

 

“Can I have a coffee?” Henry asks innocently, cheeky grin adorning his face. “I think I’m old enough.” 

 

Regina turns to her son, shaking her head, attempting a smile. Henry asks almost every time he comes down for breakfast for a coffee, and Regina usually rebuffs him with a fond,  _ when you’re older, mijo,  _ the familiarity between the two in the exchange obvious. Henry’s observant, however, and when Regina stares at him with a stricken look in her eyes, failing to fall into the pattern that they inhabit with this conversation, he frowns. 

 

“Did-” He looks at Emma cautiously, who busies herself by walking over to the refrigerator to get some water. “Did  _ she _ come round again?”  

 

The ‘she’ in question is obviously Cora, and Emma winces at Regina’s tremulous reply of, “No, my darling. Don’t you worry about me.” 

 

“I gotta, Mom, it’s my job.” Henry replies, little face full of burning and immovable righteousness. He looks like a little hero, without the cape, Emma thinks, much like she had once upon a time. 

 

“Oh Henry.” Regina lets out a small laugh, before grabbing the her sons hand. “I’m alright.” 

 

Henry looks at Regina suspiciously, before asquicing, biting greedily into the toast Regina slides across the counter. Regina wipes her hands, turns around, and her face falls so quickly into despair before smoothing over equally as fast, that if Emma hadn’t been staring directly at her face she wouldn’t have noticed a thing. 

 

“Regina,” Emma says, her voice breaking slightly, but Regina shakes her head and walks out of the kitchen, the door to her study closing with a soft  _ snick _ . 

  
Henry looks up. “She’s not okay, is she.” There’s resignation in his voice. “Emma, you have to save her.” 

 

“I’m trying.” Emma replies, smiling weakly at the young boy in front of her. 

 

“You know who she is, don’t you?” Henry says, eyes far more wise than they should be for his age. “The Evil Queen.” 

 

“Yes.” Emma says quietly, her head hurting just by thinking about that revelation. She still couldn’t quite believe it; the mask sliding down and Regina’s face being revealed had, in fact, caused her to pass out at the time. When she’d woken up at the hospital, with Regina by her side spinning some half-assed story of how she’d fallen and hit her head, she’d been convinced for a few moments that it had all been a dream, and that she had hit her head. 

  
But then the doctor had left, and Regina had looked her in the eyes for the first time since Emma had woken up, and she’d realised that this was true, this was real, and things had just gotten a whole lot more complicated. 

 

“She needs your help,” Henry says. “She’s not whole.” 

 

And how could she be? Emma thinks. Her son, missing a heart, her mother, a cruel and self serving villain. Emma had been there for a while, desperately attempting to stop the gaps that appeared in Regina’s life, but she knew that until Henry had his heart back in his chest, Regina’s eyes would never revive from the dull sorrow that was constantly present, and that she would never look at Emma how Emma hoped she would one day. 

 

“I know, Henry.” Emma murmurs, ruffling the young boy’s hair, smiling at the way he sticks his tongue out at her and immediately pats it down. “She’s going to be okay. So are you. Everything will be fine.” 

  
Henry looks at her, and his eyes are full of trust, and hope, and Emma’s heart clenches at the sight. 

 

“I’m- I’m gonna go check on your mom, alright?” Emma says, and nods at the plate in front of Henry. “Put that in the sink when you’re done, alright?” 

 

“I know.” Henry grumbles lightly, and Emma leaves the kitchen, approaching the heavy wooden door that leads to Regina’s study with a slight cautiousness. 

 

“Hey.” Emma says softly, knocking on the door before turning the handle. “You alright?” 

 

Regina looks up from where she is huddled, hands on her head, hunched over on the sofa. “Hey.” She replies softly, sighing deeply. “Sorry, I just- I hate it that Henry has to worry like that.” 

 

“No, no I get it.” Emma says, brow furrowing. “It’s horrible.” 

 

Regina shifts over, and Emma comes to sit down next to her, the early morning light shining through the window and into the study. Emma had always wondered where Regina had gotten the money to live in such a nice house, with large enough that she could have her own study, but Regina had soon told her that it had belonged to her father when he’d died. A picture of the man sits on the mantelpiece, his eyes looking exactly like his daughters. Emma wonders, now, if he’d been around whether or not Cora would have managed to get to Regina. 

 

“I never wanted this.” Regina says, clasping her hands together in her lap. “Henry was supposed to have the opposite of my childhood; without fear or worry, or my mother. That was my plan from the moment he was placed in my arms.” 

 

Emma places her hand next to Regina’s tense legs, wondering if she should attempt to hold Regina’s hand, to touch her. But in the few months they have known each other, Emma has come to realise that when Regina is tense, or worse, angry, she needs her space. Her own angry little bubble where she can rage.

 

That’s why Emma’s surprised when Regina continues to talk, a distant look in her eyes. “It was my power that made this happen. And my mother. But if I hadn’t had this- this  _ gift  _ then I might be free, then I might-” She chokes back a sob, and Emma decides  _ what the hell  _ and wraps her arms around Regina. She stiffens, at first, but then relaxes. 

 

“I don’t know why you’re even here.” She mutters against Emma’s collarbone, hands clenching the thick hoodie Emma shrugged on that morning. “I’m the Evil Queen.” 

 

“No, you aren’t.” Emma says, and then sighs. “You aren’t near evil. Have you ever killed somebody?” 

 

“No.” Regina mumbles, sullenly. “I’ve injured people, though. Pulled down buildings, cost the city thousands, scared-” 

 

“Which was then willingly repaired by the person who ordered it all done.” Emma counters, leaning her cheek against Regina’s hair, breathing in the familiar scent of the apple shampoo she uses. “You know I’ll stay, Regina. When I met you- you, you, the one without the mask, I knew then I’d never leave your side. Not if I could help it.” 

 

“Idiot.” Regina says, still muffled against her shirt. Emma smiles, and Regina lifts her head up, settling back against the sofa. “I’m still sorry.” She says, shaking her head. “Because of my mother you’ve had to deal with loads of things that you probably weren’t even prepared for. The Swan, as far as I knew, had disappeared for almost a decade.” It’s then that her eyes spark with curiosity. “Why did you disappear?” 

_ Ah. That.  _ “Well, you know, my parents were a little bit- well.” Emma stops, nibbles her lip. She hasn’t talked about this to anyone, not ever. “They were a bit like Cora, I suppose.” 

 

“Oh.” Regina purses her lips, eyes sympathetic. “Oh, Emma.” 

 

“I ran away once I was old enough.” Emma waves a hand. “And it was different. Different then what Cora wanted you to do. I wasn’t supposed to be a villain; I was meant to be the hero.” 

 

Emma sighs, and shifts slightly, gazing at the clear sky outside of Regina’s windows, sun beaming into the study. “My parents were, I guess, legacy superheros. Snow White and Prince Charming.” 

 

“Oh my god.” Regina gasps. “ _ Those people  _ are your parents?” 

 

Emma’s used to a lot when she hears those names; reverence, awe, but never, not ever,  _ disgust.  _ “What, you don’t like them?” Emma asks Regina, amused. “That’s a first.” 

 

Regina scowls, crossing her arms in a huff. “I tried to be a superhero when I first found out. Took out the Blind Witch myself. The next morning I woke up to interviews with  _ those two  _ claiming they had done it.” 

 

“Wait-” Emma points at Regina, eyes wide. “ _ You’re  _ the kid that had my parents in knots back then? They were worried!” 

 

“Worried?” 

 

“Yeah, they knew it was a kid who’d done it, thanks to the Blind Witch being able to identify your voice and stuff. That’s why they took credit, in order to stop you from being found out by any other villains and being hunted down.” 

 

Regina pauses, and then sniffs. “Well. They could have at least given me some of the credit” 

 

“Well, my parents could be pretty misguided at times.” 

 

Regina raises an eyebrow, and Emma elaborates. “I was basically forced- well, made to believe that I had to be a superhero. The first time I fought a villain I was around fourteen. And I-” Emma pauses, remembers the concrete, the blood, the way Pan’s still face held that last glimpse of panic- “killed him.” 

 

There’s a silence, and Emma’s pretty sure her mask of nonchalance has held up until Regina takes her hand. “I’m sorry.” 

 

“Don’t be.” Emma scoffs. “I was in the wrong anyway. I killed someone.”  _ Several people,  _ Emma reminds herself, thinking of all the other times she blocked out after a fight with a particularly nasty villain. 

 

“That’s what happens to villains.” Regina shrugs uncomfortably. “No one questioned Snow and Charming for doing that. But you were a child. It’s not fair.” 

 

“No, it wasn’t.” Emma says softly, feeling the hurt that’s over a decade old come rearing back again. “It really, really wasn’t.” She clears her throat. “Anyway. I ran away when I was eighteen and never looked back. As far as I know, they never looked for me. And my mom was pretty young when she had me so they probably had another kid to ‘carry on their legacy’ and shit.” There’s a lump in her throat, and Emma swallows dryly to get rid of it. “That’s pretty much my story.” 

 

Regina strokes Emma’s hand with her thumb softly, before a clock chimes and the two of them jumps. Regina looks at her watch. “It’s time.” She says, biting her lip. “Henry’s going to Marian’s house, he’ll be safe there. Cora will have left the house by then.” 

 

“Okay.” Emma says, heart speeding up ever so slightly. This is it. The chance to get Regina’s freedom back. 

 

Regina turns to go, but Emma catches on to her hand. “It’s going to be okay.” 

 

Regina’s face is grim. “I hope so.” 

 

***************

 

Henry is dropped off at Marian’s house, and Regina bends down, holding him in a tight hug. “Love you  _ mijo. _ ” She whispers in his ear, and Henry hugs her back just as tightly. “Be safe. Everything is going to be right again by tonight.” 

 

“Okay Mama.” Henry replies, eyes calm. He looks at Emma, eyes boring directly into her, and Emma gives him a tiny nod. “Emma will keep you safe, yes?” 

 

“Yes, she will.” Regina says, a fond smile gracing her lips. “Now go and have a good time with Roland.” Henry scampers inside without a backward glance, and Emma lets out a tiny breath of relief at the fact that  _ yes henry is actually a kid and not some eighty year old wise guy stuck in a child’s body or something.  _

 

Marian herself notices something is wrong, folding her arms and looking at Regina sternly. 

 

“What’s going on?” Marian asks, eyes flickering towards Emma curiously, who is standing next to Regina scuffing her shoes against the sidewalk nervously. “Is everything okay?” 

 

“Sorry to drop Henry off like this.” Regina says apologetically. “Emma and I have something really important that came up last night.” 

 

Marian’s eyes widen with glee. “ _ Emma and I?  _ Is this the famous girlfriend you won’t introduce me to?” 

 

Emma has to grin; the woman in front of her has infectious energy that seems to seep into everyone around her. “Hi.” She sticks out her hand. “Nice to meet you. Emma Swan.” 

 

“Emma  _ Swan.”  _ Marian says with an exaggerated tone, shaking her hand vigorously. “And tell me, how did you and my best friend get together?” 

 

Emma notices Regina stiffen at the words ‘best friend’, and wonders what’s going on there. She focuses on Marian. “Came into her flower shop one day, and kept on coming back.” 

 

“Couldn’t stay away.” Regina mumbles, brow furrowed, but there’s humour in her voice. 

“Well, I’ve got to say, you’ve brought a light into Regina’s eyes that I haven’t seen there since Danie-” Marian cuts off suddenly, and coughs. “Since she was younger.” 

 

Emma glances quickly over at Regina who is staring daggers at Marian.  _ More secrets?  _

 

“We’ve got to go now.” Regina says tightly, and Marian shoots her a glance. 

 

“What’s so important, Regina?” She asks softly, obviously sensing the nervous energy that charges the air between Regina and Emma. “Are you- is everything okay?” 

 

“It’s a funeral.” Emma blurts out, before Regina can reply. “My fault, sorry.” She chuckles weakly. 

 

“Oh, I’m so sorry, who is it for?” 

 

“Uncle” 

 

“Cousin” 

 

Regina and Emma both say at the first time, and share panicked glances. 

 

“The uncle of my cousin.” Emma says, giving another weak smile. “We really have to go though.” 

  
“Thanks again Marian.” Regina says, and both of them hurry back to the car. 

 

“Uncle of your cousin?” Regina hisses as the doors slam shut and Emma turns on the engine. “That was the best you could come up with?” 

 

Emma glares at her. “You  _ know  _ I’m not good at making up fake relatives!” 

 

***********

 

They’re standing in front of Cora’s house, holding hands tightly. The mansion itself is cold and imposing, with dramatic marble pillars and a looming black door. 

 

“Wow.” Emma blurts out as they arrive. “This is- um, where you grew up?” 

 

Regina eyes the house, distaste clear on her face. “Mmmm. Daddy hated it here. The house we have now was much more suited to his taste, and to be honest I would have much rather grown up there.” 

 

Emma looks at the house again; feels the cold atmosphere practically radiating off it. Regina’s house is more warm, with it’s light colours and flower bouquets around every corner. She can’t imagine a child, much less Regina, growing up in this frigid and sharp environment. 

 

“It just never felt….right.” Regina says, and then sighs, opening the gate with a gloved hand. “She has a brilliant security system, so we can’t risk going through the door. I’ll take us into the house, where I know the security doesn’t extend to.” 

 

Emma nods, feeling nerves twirl in her stomach. She’s unsure about this, sure, but part of the nerves come from the fact that she’s going to be travelling underground, in a way she’s seen the Evil Queen use multiple times to establish a quick getaway. 

 

Regina holds out her hand, and Emma takes it. Regina then secures her other arm around Emma’s waist, and scrunches up her face. “I hope this works.” 

 

She stamps her foot down, and suddenly Emma’s falling, and she doesn’t like the sensation  _ at all  _ because she never, ever falls. Then the soft ground is cushioning her fall, and when she looks up, Regina is holding out a flashlight and they’re in some kind of underground cavern. It’s colder, and Emma feels unsettled, especially when she realises she can’t do more than hover a few feet off the ground. 

 

“I can’t really fly here.” Emma says, her nerves increasing. She’s feeling even more skittish now, unsettled by the fact that the one constant in her life has now been dampened. 

 

“Hm.” Regina mutters, looking up at the cavern. “Must be because of the difference in the elements of our powers. You’re sky based, where as I’m more nature based- earthbound. I suppose if you took me flying or something I wouldn’t be able to conjure a flower or something.” 

 

Emma raises an eyebrow. “How do you know this?” 

 

“There’s research on it, you know.” Regina shrugs. “I read a bit about it when I was a child. Interested in where this all came from, you know.” She raises her hands, and a bit of earth crumbles in a second, forming another round tunnel. She shines the iphone light towards it. “Let's go, shall we?” 

 

Emma nods, still unnerved by the way she feels so completely untethered without her power, and follows Regina through the hole, the damp earth brushing against her leather jacket. A few worms poke out twisting back and forth at the sudden arrival of air.  _ Ew.  _ “Not so glamorous for a supervillain, huh? Diving into holes in the ground filled with worms?” She teases. 

  
Regina turns back to look at her, raising an eyebrow. “Well it certainly managed to get me away from you every time.” 

 

“I could have caught you.” Emma rolls her eyes. “I just wanted to see if there was a chance of redemption in you before I caught you.” 

 

Regina scoffs. “Excuse me. You never even got close to catching me, and I know it irked you. My last image of the night was  _ always  _ you huffing in the air as you dove towards the ground.” 

 

“I could have  _ definitely  _ caught you.” Emma reiterates, folding her arms. “I can freaking  _ fly.  _ I am elegant and dangerous in a terrifying combinations that has most supervillains quaking in their boots I’ll have you-” 

 

Her sentence cuts off before she can finish it as she trips over a root and lands, face first, in a pile of dirt. Groaning, Emma raises her head to see Regina grinning at her smugly. 

 

“Elegant, huh?” 

 

“Shut up.” 

 

*************

 

They materialise in some grand hall, the floor opening up quietly, Regina sealing it with another wave of her hand. “I could have been such a good thief.” She mutters quietly, and Emma chuckles quietly. 

 

The hall, despite being filled with musty old paintings and ornate tables and chairs, feels empty. Regina notices her expression, and nods. “I always hated this room in particular. Mother would receive guests here. It’s meant to intimidate.” 

 

Emma shivers slightly; not because of the cold, but because of the way this room clearly says  _ go away.  _ “Something's wrong with it.” She mumbles, and Regina waves her hand at the room. 

 

“No flowers. Ever since she found out my gift. No flowers, anywhere. ” She says quietly. The statement jolts something in Emma, and the disgust for Cora coils even tighter. “God, I’m nervous.” 

 

“It’s going to be okay.” Emma says wishing she could just go and punch Cora in the face or something. Yeah, that would be so satisfying. 

 

“But Henry-” Regina’s eyes flash, the concern and apprehension she feels at the risk they’re taking obvious in her every movement. “What if he gets hurt? I can’t- I can’t hurt Henry, this isn’t a good idea Emma-” 

  
“Henry will be fine.” Emma interrupts, her voice leaving no room for argument. “Henry will get his heart back, and you are going to get the fuck away from Cora, and then I’ll do the rest. You will be safe,  _ he will be safe. _ ” 

 

Regina nods, quickly, swiping her hair back from her face in a gesture that conveys her anxiety. “Yes. He’ll be fine. This is for the best.” She repeats, and takes a large breath.

 

“Yeah.” 

 

“Alright.” Regina exhales nervously, and squeezes Emma’s hand. “You better stand on guard.” 

 

“What?” 

 

“I know where my mother’s vault is, but I have no idea what kind of security mechanisms she’s put in place. It might quietly alert her to an intrusion, trap me, anything. I need you out here to stay alert and on the lookout.” 

 

“But-” Emma begins to whine, but Regina holds up her hand. 

 

“Emma, you need to stay safe.” She says, and her face is serious. “If Mother finds you, finds out that you’re  _ with me  _ and that I’ll care about you, she will hurt you. She’ll use you against me like she has Henry. So if you see her, and I’m trapped or I can’t hear you, you get out of here, okay? Fly away, I don’t care. I can’t allow my mother to hurt anyone more that dares to have a relationship with me.” 

 

Emma aches, and before she can stop it, she says, “Well I love you. So I’m not leaving you behind no matter what.” 

 

There’s a silence, a yawning pause, and Regina’s eyes are that horrible, horrible blank expression. 

 

“Right.” She finally says, stiffly. “I- ah-” 

 

“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way.” Emma says, hating the way her heart drops.  _ Your own damn fault Swan, shouldn’t have told her.  _

 

“I- I care about you, Emma.” Regina says, hesitantly. “But- ever since Henry- ever since- there was-” She shakes her head. “A long time ago I closed myself off to love, and then with Henry being caught in the crossfires between my mother and myself, I just…” She trails off, face inscrutable. 

 

“I don’t know how to love very well, and recently it feels like I haven’t been able to love at all.” 

 

“Right.” Emma says, and the hurt wells up inside her before she can stop it. “Well. That’s fine then.” 

 

“Emma-” 

 

“It’s fine.” Emma says, turning away, her hand slipping out of Regina’s grasp. “Let’s get Henry’s heart back, okay?” 

 

Regina bites her lip. “Emma look at me.” 

 

Emma ignores her. 

 

Regina sighs, and then kisses her cheek lightly. “I’ll go get Henry’s heart back, okay? Then we can talk about this some more. I just need some more...time, I think.” 

 

“Sure.” Emma mumbles, and she feels Regina leave her side, walking towards the fireplace. Curious, Emma looks over her shoulder and watches as Regina pushes a stone in the fireplace, the stone moving backwards. A low grinding noise emanates from the fireplace, and Regina moves backwards as a staircase appears. It’s dark, and cold, and Emma hates the idea of Regina descending down there, into the unknown. 

 

“Bye, then.” She calls softly, and is about to step onto the first step before Emma calls out, 

 

“Wait.” 

 

Regina pauses, turns to look at her, and Emma moves forward quickly, seizing her by the waist and kissing her, Regina's hands immediately encircling Emma's neck. Emma breaks the kiss, looking at the other woman. “You know what, I don’t care.” She murmurs. “Whatever. You only have room in your heart for Henry right now, I understand that, especially after what you’ve been through. But. If you’ll have me, I’ll stay forever.” 

 

Regina places a palm against Emma’s cheek, cradling her face, eyes fond. “You’re such a romantic, Emma.” 

 

“Yeah.” Emma says, with a wink. “It’s part of the whole superhero gig, I’m afraid. Need to be a hopeless romantic with a gooey heart who falls for pretty flower shop owners that moonlight as evil nemesis. It’s in the job description.” 

 

Regina chuckles lightly. “Alright. Let’s do this then.” 

 

Emma steps back, still holding Regina’s hand, who gives it one last squeeze before turning and walking down the steps, and into the darkness. 

 

Emma watches her go, and hopes with every breath that she’ll be okay. 

 

*************

 

**viii. regina and the darkness**

 

Regina enters the dark vault, trepidation running through every nerve in her body. She can feel her fear, as though it is hunched on top of her shoulders, a palpable weight. Her heart isn’t helping matters either; beating faster and faster, pulling her towards the glowing boxes in the room. 

 

She’s sure that it’s leading her to Henry. 

 

The room is dimly lit, and cool, the air brushing against Regina’s fingers, cloaking her. Regina breathes deeply,  _ in, out, in, out,  _ because there are so many boxes, and so many of them are glowing, and  _ oh my god my mother is a monster.  _

 

Regina stands stock still in the middle of the room for a moment, almost overwhelmed by the fact that each of the hundreds of the boxes here contain people’s lives, and Cora can end them with a single squeeze of her fingers. Before the nausea threatens to overwhelm her, she moves forward, the word  _ henry henry henry  _ beating in her mind with quiet determination. 

 

She will save her son. She will save the ragged little family she has formed, she, Henry and Emma, and they will get far, far away from Cora. Maybe she can finally understand what freedom is, finally  _ love again.  _

 

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to say it back to Emma- oh, she did. She desperately wanted to love Emma. She could, she knew it. It was there, on the fringes of her heart, just waiting to overflow. But something was stopping it. It was as though every time she tried to love Emma, to feel that overwhelming affection and care, that something blocked it, bounced it away, and all she was left with was a great, big empty nothing. 

 

It was like she was hollow. 

 

And although Regina hated to admit it, she really, really did, it sometimes happened with Henry. Just-  _ blankness.  _ There was nothing, and she would look at her son, and be afraid by the fact that all she could feel was this timid rattle of where a fierce love for her son usually thrummed so loudly. 

 

Regina traces her fingers along the boxes, noticing names. Her heart speeds up, as she sees names like  _ belle french-  _ wasn’t that the secretary that Gold was having an affair with? Regina feels the nausea unfurl in her stomach- she had given her mother the confirmation that they had been having an affair, and that Gold cared about her. 

 

_ Oh god. _ Regina bends over, trying not to vomit, breathing deeply.  _ Oh god.  _

 

There’s a tingling, on the edges of her fingertips, so Regina moves on, because this isn’t her priority right now. Her attention is caught, however, not among the masses of names that are carved into the heavy wooden boxes, but by the pedestal, sitting at the end of the room, a soft light shining down on it. Regina swallows her revulsion at someone’s heart being on display like this, but moves forward. Henry’s heart, after all, must be prized to Cora, and therefore it would make sense to have it on display like that. 

As she draws closer though, her eyes still adjusting to the light, a swirl of foreboding begins to form in her stomach. She reaches the box, different than all the others as it is encased in gold, and glances down at the letters. 

 

**_R E G I N A_ **

 

“No.” Regina mutters. “No.” 

 

“Oh, my dear.” Regina whirls around, and there stands her mother, glowing heart encased in her fist. “You never learn.” 

 

“No!” Regina cries out, and lunges towards Cora, who is holding what  _ she knows  _ is her heart. She can feel the way her heart calls out to her, and it's  _ so close its right there it was never Henry’s heart that was missing oh god-  _

 

“Stand still.” Cora whispers to the heart, and Regina finds herself suddenly unable to move, fixed to the spot. Cora looks at her, malevolent gleam in her eyes. 

 

“Now, now, Regina. For once, you are going to listen to me.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> right so. I hope you all didn't see the plot twist coming and that it makes sense, haha. Next update will probably be within the next few weeks, I hope! 
> 
> Thank you to all who reviewed, they truly motivate me to write! Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

**viii. regina and her heart**

 

Things come in flashes. 

 

First, it’s of her mother. Cora, standing in front of her, the most angry Regina’s ever seen her. Regina must have been around six  _ (she has mud on her dress and her hair’s a mess and she must have just insulted that idiotic boy who’d come with Mother’s work friends and called her a pig.),  _ and there’s a pain in her chest and suddenly her mother is holding a glowing pink-  _ heart? _ in front of her.

 

The anger on Cora’s face slowly slides away, and Regina backs away into a corner, the fear dulled but still present, as her mother sobs, cradling the heart with soft hands.  _ I’m so sorry my darling please forgive me  _ echoes in her mind, as Cora approaches her, whispers something to the glowing thing in her hand, holding it as though it carries the weight of the world, and suddenly there’s a warmth in Regina’s chest and then the memory is  _ gone _ \- 

 

The memory fades, and another one takes its place. 

 

Cora is standing in front of her, and Daniel’s next to her, clutching Regina’s hand tightly. 

 

“We’re in love.” Regina announces, and Cora’s angry again and Regina feels trepidation in her heart- _ because it’s there, beating firmly in her chest where it belongs  _ \- “And we’re leaving. You can’t stop us, Mother.” 

 

And Daniel knows about the flowers, accepts them and loves her, so Regina allows one barbed vine to snake off her wrist threateningly. She won’t allow her mother to ruin this. Daniel’s hand around hers, and everything is going to be fine. 

 

“Well.” Mother is impressed. “I didn’t think you had it in you. Unfortunately, Regina, I cannot allow this. Your rebellion ends now.” She sighs. “I really didn’t want to have to do this.”  

 

And Regina didn’t know  _ she didn’t know and Cora’s hand darts out as quick as anything-  _ Daniel is now crying out in pain, and Regina’s frozen,  _ frozen, frozen, frozen.  _

 

He falls to the ground, and it’s only then that Regina’s gaze falls away from the glowing heart in Cora’s hands that’s now crumbling to dust, allowing herself to fall next to the boy who’d dared to love her. 

 

She cries, heartbroken for a few seconds. The overwhelming grief, however, lessens when her heart is removed as well, and instructions imparted. 

 

_ You will not remember this. Daniel died. You will go to university, just like planned, and not attempt to run away again.  _

 

Before that memory fades in a flash, the last image is of Cora, staring at her hands grimly as Regina gazes numbly at Daniel’s body. 

 

The scene changes again. 

 

This time, it’s with Henry in it, and everything becomes more defined- more focused, as everything with Henry in it usually is. 

 

Regina is hissing, sharp words, but mindful of the frightened young boy hidden behind her back. “Don’t you dare come nearer, Mother. We are leaving, Henry and I, and you won’t see us again. Find another villain for your story.” 

 

Cora smiles at her, but it’s sharp, pointed, and most definitely dangerous. Regina immediately places a hand next to Henry, more than ready to let the vines she’s cultivated into lethal weapons at the behest of her mother fly off her wrists.

 

“Well isn’t this familiar.” Cora purrs, her eyes sparking in a way that has Regina feel the slightest bit of unease underneath the hard determination to get away from the woman in front of her. “Once with Daniel, once with Henry.” She sighs. “Will you ever learn?” 

 

Daniel’s name thuds heavily between them, and Regina allows herself a brief moment of weakness, her eyelids fluttering shut as she fights to regain her composure. Dear, sweet Daniel, gone before Regina had even had the chance to say goodbye. She hadn’t realised her mother had even been aware of their relationships, but, like usual, Cora surprises her with the sheer amount of knowledge she has collected secretly. 

 

“How-” Her voice is hoarse. “How do you know about Daniel?” 

 

Cora gives her a look that could only be  _ pitying. _ “I know everything, Regina. And just as I didn’t want to do this then, I don’t want to do this now. But you just won’t obey me.” 

 

Cora takes a few deliberate steps forward, and Regina immediately shifts in front of Henry. “What are you doing, Mother?” 

 

Cora frowns, eyes flicking from Henry to Regina, and back again. “No,” She murmurs, hands clasped in front of her. “No, I will have to be a little more extreme than usual, it seems.” 

 

And her mother’s hand shoots forward, and into her chest, and Regina’s  _ gasping  _ for air, and Henry’s crying behind her  _ and she wants to comfort him but- _

 

“Look at me” Cora whispers to the glowing  _ thing- a heart, it’s her heart-  _ in her hand. “Listen to me.” 

 

“Wha-” Regina gasps, hands coming up to touch her chest where her mother’s hand  _ had sunk in just a few moments ago.  _ “What have you done?” 

 

The heart in Cora’s hands glows brightly, thumping in tune to the beats that Regina can still hear in her head. “You didn’t think you were the only one in this family with powers, now did you my dear? Controlling hearts is quite a handy power, I must say. I can make you forget things in the snap of a finger-” She whispers something to the heart and Regina groans-

 

_ Daddy- his voice- what did he sound like- no,no,no- _

 

“What did you do?” Regina whispers, and the fear is there, palpable in the air. 

 

“Just a little reminder of who else I could make you forget. Besides, that was harmless. You don’t really need to remember what your father’s voice sounded like, do you? It’s not vital knowledge, not like-” 

 

Everything blurs, and the next moment that Regina can remember is she’s now kneeling on the floor, gasping for air. Her mother is standing in front of her, and tiny hands clutch her shoulder. 

 

A boy, with tears running down his face yanks at her arm. “Mama,” He says, “Mama, it’s me, Henry?” 

 

“W-Who?” Regina stutters, and this child is  _ important,  _ she can feel it in the depths of her soul. “Who are you?” She looks up at her mother, unsure of what is going on. “Mother?” 

 

“Mama, it’s me, it’s  _ Henry-”  _

 

“I- I don’t know who you are.” Regina says, and tries to yank her arm away from this  _ boy  _ who is almost incoherent with tears. “I’m sorry.” 

 

“Horrific things, Regina. That is what I can make you do.” She nods at the boy beside Regina, cold, dispassionate. “Use those vines on him.” 

 

“Mama!” The boy screams in terror, and Regina feels the vines creeping along her wrist, out, out, out, intent on hurting. “Mama,  _ please!”  _

 

The word strikes something deep-  _ this boy is important he means something something something-  _ “Mama,” Regina whispers to herself, and she fights. 

 

The world blurs again, and suddenly she’s holding  _ Henry her son her baby boy who looked at her with a gummy smile the first time she held him her son her son her son- _

 

“Henry,  _ Henry-”  _ She’s the one sobbing now, holding her son close to her. “I will never forget you, I promise-” 

 

Her son’s shoulders shake and his arms are tight around her neck. Regina lifts her face to see her mother’s- the glimmer of shock that must have appeared fading fast. 

 

“You-” Cora opens her mouth, and then closes it with a snap. “You broke a command.” 

 

“I will fight.” Regina snarls, the fire in her chest roaring to life once more, even though it’s with a slight dull edge that makes Regina shiver. “I will fight, no matter what you do.” 

 

“Yes,” Cora says, thoughtful now. “Yes, you would, wouldn’t you.” She looks at the heart in her hands. “But what if I made sure that fighting wasn’t an option?” 

 

The world blurs around her, and Henry screams again. 

 

When she wakes, she’s staring at her son, curled up on the floor, eyes following her mother with the look of a spooked deer, and her mother standing rigidly by the door. 

 

“What have you done to him?” Regina asks, and it all comes back, the way she yanked a heart out of her son’s chest and oh-

 

She can’t remember much, but the image of her attempted escape, and then her mother’s clawed hand reaching into Henry’s chest, Regina too late to stop her is seared into her brain, the image repeating over and over as though it were a tape stuck on replay. 

 

“You fight me, Regina, and I  _ will  _ kill him.” Her mother’s voice is iron and steel and cold, cold ice, one that she’s heard many times throughout her childhood- only now, now it’s with a note of triumph, her mother more than certain that Regina will never again rebel. 

 

“You took his heart!” Regina launches herself at her mother, but sinks to the floor quickly after, as though an invisible command is whispered in her head-  _ she’ll hurt Henry- it’s no use fighting- _

 

“Take mine instead!” Regina whimpers, head pounding. “Please, not Henry’s.” 

 

She feels a hand under her chin, and her head is lifted, eyes meeting her mother’s. “I find it’s much more fun this way, don’t you think?” 

 

****************

 

“Why.” Regina croaks, still gazing at the heart encased in her mother’s hands. “Why make me believe that you had Henry’s heart?” 

 

“Because you broke a command when it was only yourself in danger.” Cora says, taking a few steps forward. “But if I made you believe that it was Henry’s heart that was taken- which was oh so simple with your heart in my possession- you would be frozen in fear that if you tried to break the command of not hurting me, Henry would die. It’s a subtle art, controlling a human, and the layered commands were enough, for a time, to hold you in place.” Cora taps the heart in her hands thoughtfully, causing Regina to clutch her chest, as the thumping times in beat to Cora’s fingers. “Until that pesky woman came around.” 

 

“Why not just take Henry’s heart?” Regina says, still not quite understanding  _ why  _ all the deception, and lies and  _ fear _ . 

 

“Because I knew that if I didn't actually control you, if I had your son’s heart, you would stop at nothing to kill me.” Cora replies, frowning now. “The loyalty you have towards that boy is...commendable, unfortunately. I just wish it were turned towards a more worthwhile cause.” 

 

“He’s my son.” Regina says, fierceness evident in every word. “My loyalty will always be to him first, and foremost.” 

 

Cora smiles sweetly, walking a few more paces until she is directly in front of Regina. Her shadow bounces off the dark walls of the vault, looming shadows threatening to gulp up the limited light in the room. “Just like I have placed you above everything, my dear.” 

 

“You’ve never done that.” Regina says, through gritted teeth, meeting her mother’s gaze head on. “You’ve used me like a pawn, and ruined my life. You’ve never cared about me.” 

 

Cora’s face tightens; her hand twitches around the heart, held carelessly by her side and Regina doubles over in pain, clutching her chest. “Now now, Regina. Let’s not have you saying things you don’t mean.”

“Oh, I mean it.” Regina says, a breathless laugh tearing out of her throat, something vile and poisonous bubbling in her throat- words that she’s known since she was a child spilling out of her mouth. “I mean it with every fiber of my soul. I can see right through you, Mother. Right through your claims of love, and knowing what’s best for me. Perhaps you want to keep on fooling yourself, in order to hold onto that ideal that you still have an  _ ounce  _ of humanity left in you, but you’re the heartless one here.” 

 

One thing Regina had always been, and would always be, was reckless when she lost her temper. She had a good head for planning, could manipulate her way out of a paper bag, and usually won the games that were played in the world, but she was  _ reckless.  _ And when anger got to her, it got to her fast, and any patience that Regina was able to hold onto in these moments would slip away, tearing through her fingers as cold, cruel words ruined everything she had worked for. 

 

Reckless. And now Regina knew, with the look that appeared in her mother’s eyes at those words, she had gone to far. 

 

“Oh no, we can’t have this.” Cora’s eyes gleam in the dark, a leopard pouncing on its prey. Regina shivers. “I don’t like what this Swan girl has done to you  _ at all.  _ We’ll have to put a stop to that. Maybe, you’ll finally learn Regina, that insubordination  _ will not be tolerated. _ ” 

 

And everything disappears in a haze, as her mother’s voice whispers in her mind, 

 

_ kill her.  _

  
  


************

  
  


**ix: emma and the battle**

  
  


Fifteen minutes after Regina enters the vault, Emma sees her coming up the stairs again. Immediately rushing over, Emma quickly notes the slumped shoulders, pursed lips and clenched fists. And the fact that something in Regina’s eyes when she raises her head seem hollow. 

 

“I’m sorry.” Emma says softly, reaching out a hand for Regina’s. “Don’t give up hope though,  _ please. _ ” 

 

“Henry’s heart wasn’t there.” Regina mutters, almost as though in a daze. “I was wrong.” 

 

“We’ll find it.” Emma replies, determined. Her voice echoes loudly through the large hall, bouncing off the walls, the effect only adding to the eerie atmosphere that creeps around the edges of the house. “It’s going to be okay.” 

 

Regina looks at her for a moment; inscrutable. Emma shifts- she really hates it when she can’t tell what the other woman is thinking. Then, Regina lifts one shoulder, dropping it again with a kind of loose carelessness that has Emma even more on edge. “Maybe.” 

 

Emma scrunches her face up as she looks at Regina, not sure how to take this oddly sullen version. The Regina she knows would most likely be stomping around the room trying to figure out where Henry’s heart could actually be, perhaps smashing a vase or two to vent some frustration. 

 

“It will be.” Emma replies firmly, putting down Regina’s lackluster attitude to the shock and loss of hope that Emma is all too familiar with. “Henry’s going to be fine.” 

 

This gets a reaction out of Regina. “Yes. Yes, he will.” She looks at Emma, straightening ever so slightly, a spark lighting in her eyes. “Promise me, Emma. If anything happens to me-  _ promise me-  _ Henry will be safe.” 

 

_ Okay so that took a turn.  _ Emma reaches a hand out for Regina, grabbing both her shoulders in a firm hold. “I promise you.” 

 

Regina stares at her for a moment. Then, moving quickly but stiffly, she pulls Emma towards her, before kissing her softly. Emma kisses back, slightly bewildered but ready to provide comfort nonetheless, hands running across Regina’s back and pulling her deeper against her. Regina sighs into the kiss, hands linking behind Emma’s neck causing delightful goosebumps to erupt along the back of her neck as Regina allows her hands to delicately dance against her skin. But then Regina leans away, allowing their foreheads to still touch, and Emma senses something shift. 

 

“Thank you.” She whispers. “Now run.” 

 

“What?” 

 

“ _ Run.”  _

 

And then Emma’s world crumbles because Regina lashes out with those familiar vines and all Emma can do is think,  _ her mother.  _

 

Then she shoots up into the air, and the vines whip up just as quickly, and Emma’s eyes widen because Regina’s faster than she’s ever been. Faster, and ten times more lethal or so it seems. She’s aiming  _ to kill  _ like she never had before, and Emma’s breath catches in her throat as she’s forced to dodge violently to the side. 

 

“Regina!” Emma calls, and then ducks as a slicing vine whips over her head. “Regina,  _ stop!”  _

 

But Regina doesn’t even answer, instead simply swinging out with the vines causing Emma to duck and dodge, a whirlwind of movement. 

 

“Regina!” She calls out again, this time swerving to the side as a sharp vine passes only a hair’s breadth away from her. “ _ You don’t have to do this!”  _

 

She manages to catch a glimpse of Regina’s face, where a ripple goes through it, and Regina’s eyes widen, and she croaks,  _ “Henry.”  _

 

Emma’s heart speeds up, and suddenly she gets it. Behind Regina, however, a dark shadow appears, slowly revealing the form of Cora Mills. 

 

The sneer on her face is a sight to behold, and Emma shivers at the way that one clawed hand grips the heart  _ that must be Regina’s  _ with a possessive hold. “So.” The woman says, and comes to stand beside Regina, whose frantic lashing with the vines ceases and she stands stock still. “The Swan. I’m guessing Regina had no idea who you were, and when she did, didn’t even bother to kill you?” 

 

Emma refuses to answer this woman, this monster, but Cora rolls her eyes regardless. “Always so weak, Regina.” She murmurs, eyes holding a facsimile of sadness. “Now I see you need me more than ever.” 

 

“She’s your daughter!” Emma calls, from high above. “She’s your daughter, and you are taking away her free will and  _ control.  _ How could you do this to someone you claim to love?” 

 

The blank look in Cora’s eyes makes Emma’s stomach turn, because something is not right with this woman. Something key has been taken away, an ingredient, something  _ important.  _ She is no longer  _ human.  _

 

“It’s because I love her that I’m doing this.” The hint of perplexion in Cora’s voice makes the statement all the more vile. “Regina needs me to help her get the life she has always wanted. The life she deserves.” 

 

“If you love her, you’ll stop this.” Emma says, hating how her voice breaks. Regina is standing unnaturally still, her only movement the rise and fall of her chest, her face blank. Regina’s face is never blank, has never been blank in a months that Emma’s known her. She’s always alive, expressions running across her face at full speed, sometimes too quick for Emma to catch. Maybe her eyes- perhaps her eyes had been hidden and dark, but Regina’s face was an open book, ready to be analysed if one were attentive enough. 

 

Cora sighs, glances at the heart in her palm. Running a hand delicately across the heart, cupping it and bringing it to her mouth, she says to Emma, “I have no use for you.” Then, to the heart. “Resume.” 

 

And instantly, as though Regina were paused, she unpauses, and the vines are thrown at Emma at a frightening speed once again. 

 

“Regina!” Emma calls out again, “Regina,  _ please.”  _

 

But the vines are coming faster, and quicker, and Regina is slowly trapping her, Emma being backed into a corner. So Emma glances up, the only way out. Above her is a skylight, and Emma sets her shoulders, takes a deep breath, and shoots upwards. 

 

The glass breaks, but Emma cries out as she shoots into the clouds. Already she can see where the sharp glass must have cut her, the cuts seeping blood rapidly against her white top and against the red leather of her jacket. “Fuck.” Emma mutters, and then looks down at the house which is now a small little pinpoint in her vision. “Fuck, fuck,  _ fuck. _ ” 

 

She has no idea how to get Regina’s heart back. Has no idea if Henry is safe now. Does Cora still have Henry’s heart? Is Henry still- 

 

Emma refuses to think of the little boy as anything else than alive, but her heart quickens and she remembers Regina’s question, and her promise. She sets her shoulders. Takes another deep breath. Ignores the stinging of the cuts and the way that blood is now dripping down her face in a grisly manner, and swoops down, down, down, to Marian’s house. 

 

**********

 

Henry’s playing in the back garden when she arrives, and lets out a shout as she lands, dust flying around her. “Emma!” He calls, and his face rapidly devolves from excitement, to fear, to sadness. “What- what happened?” 

 

Emma looks around her, and then walks quickly over to Henry, grabbing him by the shoulders. “We need to go  _ now,  _ Henry.” 

 

“Wha- What?” 

 

“Something’s happened. I can’t explain now, but you’re in danger, and so is your mom.  _ We need to go.”  _

 

“No one’s going anywhere.” A voice interrupts Emma and Henry, and Marian comes down the stairs, hands held in fists by her sides. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” 

 

Emma grabs Henry by the shoulders, ready to fly quickly. “I’m so sorry, Marian. But I can’t tell you.” 

 

“Where’s Regina?” 

 

Emma shakes her head. “I’m going to fix this. It’s all going to be okay.” 

 

And then ignoring Marian’s warning shouts, she lifts Henry into her arms, and shoots off into the sky, wishing she could take Henry  _ far, far away.  _

 

But she can’t. She has to find Regina, has to save her. 

 

So she goes to the Mills house, flying through Henry’s window, and sets him down on the bed. 

 

“You need to stay here.” She says, and Henry nods, wide eyed. “Your grandma is threatening your mother’s life, and if they come here, whatever you do, do not reveal yourself.  _ Hide.  _ And then call me. Promise?” 

“Promise.” Henry whispers, and Emma hopes, against everything, that Cora will not have had the foresight to bring Henry’s heart with her. 

 

“You’re gonna be okay, Henry.” Emma says, holding the young boy’s eyes desperately. “It’s all going to be okay.” 

 

Henry nods again, and then grabs Emma’s hands. “She has her heart.” Henry says, urgency in his voice. “You know that, right?” 

 

Emma winces. “How’d you guess, kid?” 

 

“Because she never took mine.” Henry says, and squeezes Emma’s hands tight. “My grandma took my Mom’s heart, and then said if I ever told her, she’d kill her.” His bottom lip trembles, and Emma’s stock still, heart beating fast. “That’s why Mom can’t grow flowers anymore. That’s why whenever she looks at me, there’s something missing in her eyes. Emma, she hasn’t had her heart in over a year.” 

 

“Over a- over a year?” Emma whispers. 

 

Henry nods, solemnly. “That’s why I’ve been trying to protect her. No one else will. Not until you.” 

 

“I’ll save her.  _ I’ll save her. _ ” Emma repeats, and gets up, wincing at the stinging that seems to be all over her body.

 

“I know you will.” Henry replies, quietly. “You’re the Swan. And you love Mom, and she loves you, even if she can’t feel it just yet.” 

 

“Yeah.” Emma says. “Yeah I do.” 

 

There’s a silence in the room for a moment, Henry’s mickey mouse clock ticking in the corner, before the boy looks at her again. “I’m scared.” He whispers, and curls into a ball, hugging his Iron Man pillow to his chest. “I don’t want Mom to die.” 

 

Emma feels her heart break, and is reminded of another child so long ago, who was also introduced to death much too soon. She opens her mouth to reassure him, when suddenly, the house rumbles. 

 

Henry looks at her, and Emma bounces on the balls of her feet, nerves pooling in the pit of her stomach. “Stay here, Henry.” She warns, and jumps out of the window, streaking round to the entrance of the house, where Regina and Cora stand on the pathway. 

 

“There you are.” Cora says, a cold smile that Emma’s seen so many times on her tv overtaking her face. Only this time, there is a malicious glint in it, and Emma feels queasy. This is the woman who has been duping Storybrooke City for years, using her own daughter to further her own aims and harm people. It’s a miracle that Regina wasn’t forced to kill anyone, or physically harm them. 

 

“Emma Swan.” Cora muses, watching closely as Emma settles on the front porch, standing in front of the doorway, blocking it. “Precinct 99 am I correct?” 

 

“That you are.” Emma replies, stiffly. 

 

“Funny.” Cora says, and Emma feels all the more unnerved. “Emma Swan. Or should I say Emma White?” 

 

Emma feels her entire body clam up at the sound of her real last name, flashes hot and cold. “How do you know that?” 

  
Cora scoffs. “When I found out you were dating my daughter, I made it my priority to know everything about you, Ms. White.” 

 

“When you- found out?” 

 

Cora eyes her pityingly. “I had Regina’s heart from the start. I knew everything. As much as Regina likes to think she can hide things from me, she’s very poor at it. And I decided, because I am a good mother and I want my child to be happy, even if it is with-” A sour look overtakes her face, “A policewoman with little prospects, I was okay with a minor fling.” 

 

“Then why now?” Emma asks. “Why are you revealing your hand now?” 

 

“Because Regina started to break free.” Cora says, and places a hand on Regina’s shoulder. The other woman doesn’t move, but Emma notices a shadow in her eyes. “She started to fight back again, thanks to you. And now, well. I can’t allow that to go on any longer, now can I? I must do what is best for her, and that, my dear, is simply  _ not you. _ ” 

 

Regina lashes out, quickly and suddenly, and Emma launches backwards, flying against the door in order to miss the vines that come at her so incredibly quickly. The door breaks, however, and Emma lands in the house, crashing against-  _ oh shit  _ \- Regina’s favourite vase. 

 

Cora advances quickly, and Emma leaps up in the air, cursing the fact that there is little room in the house for her to fly. Instead she flips over the bannisters opposite the entrance to the house, ready to launch out of the door the moment Regina starts attacking again. 

 

_ “Goddammit”  _ Emma mutters under her breath as she flies upwards abruptly to avoid a swinging vine, crashing into the ceiling. “ _ God-frickin-”  _ A vine swings her out of the air, catching against her body, and Emma lands on the ground with a groan, only to feel the air being pushed out of her as the vine works its way around her neck. 

  
She scrabbles at it, gasping for air, as the vine continues to squeeze her neck. “Re-gina-” Emma chokes, and  _ she needs air oh god she needs air.  _ “Re-gina  _ please- _ ” 

 

Regina’s eyes are  _ blankblankblank she’d been like this for the entire time emma had known her she’s never had her heart, emma, cora took it from her a year ago-  _

 

“Don’t- do - this-” Emma continues, and pushes outwards with a blast of air. Cora and Regina are pushed back, and the vine loosens, allowing Emma to scramble up against the wall, gasping for air. It’s too late, however, and Emma knows it, because she’s trapped, winded, and far too tired to continue. She slumps, and watches as both Cora and Regina regain their balance, and Cora snarls. 

 

“Kill her, Regina.” She says, and Regina starts forward again, the vines, so unlike the ones she usually uses- 

 

Emma’s head darts up, as she watches the slender green vines creep towards her,  _ without the poison they usually drip.  _ Regina’s still there, she’s still there  _ somewhere,  _ because the vines, they aren’t  _ poisonous they’re completely free-  _

 

“Regina-” Emma says, and remembers  _ she began to break free because of you- _ “Regina, it’s Emma- well of course you know it's Emma but-” The vine creeps closer and Emma panics. “I love you. I love you so much that it hurts.” 

 

The vine stops, and Emma continues to babble. “I know you’re there, because you are Regina and you never give up fighting. You have to fight, Regina. For Henry. For me. Because you have a flower shop to run and all my fake relatives need those flowers.  _ Fight it, Regina.”  _

 

“Do it.” Cora snarls at the heart, watching Regina twitch forward. 

 

“No!” Emma shouts, panicking as the vines grow nearer once again. “No! Don’t you dare, Regina Mills. Don’t you dare let your mother turn you into a monster!” 

 

And there it is. 

 

Regina’s face breaks open, sunshine pouring out, and she gasps for air, clutching her chest. “Oh, it hurts.” She murmurs. “Emma-” 

 

Cora is looking at Regina with wild horror. “How?” She screeches, and clutches the heart even harder. “This isn’t possible!” 

 

“Emma- run-” Regina gasps. “Kill me, or run now-  _ run-”  _

 

“Kill her!” Cora screeches, and then growls. “If you won’t do it then I’ll just do it myself.” She stalks forward, and Emma, still recovering from her almost strangulation, backed up against the wall, is unable to move. 

 

Suddenly, as Cora draws nearer, a shimmering veil surrounds her, and Cora bumps into it, flying backwards. 

 

“What the-” Emma gasps, and then looks towards the stairs. 

 

There’s Henry, hands outwards, brow furrowed. He’s directing a protective veil, encircling Emma, him and Regina, blocking Cora out. 

 

“Henry-” Regina gasps, and then twitches again. Outside the circle, Cora rages, hand clutching Regina’s heart tightly. “Henry, go, it’s dangerous!” 

 

“I have to protect you, Mama.” Henry says, focused on the veil. “From her.” 

 

“I’m so sorry.” Regina whispers, and there are tears tracking their way down her cheeks. “This is so unfair- this is just so-” She groans again, hunching over, and Emma starts towards her, wrapping her in protective arms, glaring as Cora clutches the heart with a malicious grip. 

 

And Emma hurts, for Regina, for Henry, for the fact that  _ no  _ this isn’t fair, not one bit. Looking up, she walks towards the edge of the veil. “Let me out, Henry.” She says, and glances at the boy where sweat is beading down his forehead. “Let me out.” 

 

“N-no-” He grunts, and the veil shimmers. “She’ll hurt you.” 

 

Indeed, Cora is looking rather menacing as she circles them, hungry eyes directed towards Henry. Emma glances at Regina who has gone extraordinarily pale, eyes widening as she watches Cora’s calculating eyes. 

 

“Emma,” She whispers, and then presses her lips together in a line, fists clenching as she tries to repress what must obviously be a whimper of pain. “Emma, don’t let her. Don’t let  _ her-”  _

 

“I won’t.” Emma promises softly, and then directs a stern glance at Henry. “You will let me out right now, Henry.” 

 

“No,” He gasps, hands wavering. “Emma, I have to protect you guys-” 

 

“That’s my job, kid.” 

 

“I’ve gotta be the hero, I wasn’t when she took Mama’s heart,  _ I gotta be strong, Emma- _ ” 

 

“No, Henry,” Regina’s eyes are shimmering with tears, and she wraps her son in a tight hug. “It’s not your fault. It was never your fault. I’m so, so sorry.” 

 

Henry’s arms are wavering, and the veil shimmers once again. Emma walks up to the edge, and directs a glance at Cora. “When I get out,” She says, calmly, “I am going to kill you.” 

 

The sentence is casual, a fact, and Emma isn’t sure what’s on her face, but whatever it is, it causes Cora to take a step back. 

 

“You’re a hero.” Cora states, face paling rapidly. “You don’t kill.” 

 

Emma arches an eyebrow. “Oh, I don’t?” She glances back at Henry and Regina, the small boy trembling as he struggles to keep the veil aloft, Regina’s guilt stricken face lighting a hatred for Cora in Emma that she’s never felt for anything or anyone. “Watch me.” She snarls. 

 

And Cora runs. 

 

The veil drops, Henry dropping to an exhausted slump on the ground. “Emma!” Regina yells, and Cora is running up the stairs, quicker than a woman of her age should do, and Emma’s hovering calmly, watching the older woman run. “Emma, don’t!” 

 

But Emma’s in a quiet sea of calm. The cat watches the mouse run, and a hero begins to shed her cape. 

  
  **x.** **regina and emma**

 

Her entire body feels as though a truck has bowled into it, but she couldn’t care less, not right now. Cora’s still there, in her mind, whispering  _ killkillkill  _ but it’s faded, no longer a compulsory action, not when her son is in her arms and she is so close to this nightmare ending. 

 

She’s terrified, however, because Emma is watching Cora with a look on her face that scares the living shit of Regina. It’s calm, calculated and so, so cold. 

 

“Emma!” She shouts again, and hauls herself to her feet. “Stay here, Henry.” She says to her son, who for once looks like he’s going to listen. “Whatever happens, you need to stay here. She could hurt you.” 

 

Henry nods, and curls up against the wall, arms still shaking ever so slightly, and Regina wants cry because everything she promised would never happen to Henry has happened, and he’s stuck with a power that could bring him far more grief than joy. 

 

But there will be time for that later, and so Regina goes up the stairs, and into the spare room, only to be greeted with Cora, staring pale faced at Emma. 

 

“Emma, please.” Regina says softly, creeping up behind the other woman. “Please, leave her.” 

 

“She hurt you.” Emma says, words blunt and true. “She’s going to keep on hurting you, and Henry.” 

 

Regina flinches at that, mostly because she knows it’s true. But she can’t sit by and watch Emma kill her  _ mother,  _ not without trying to find another way first. “I know plenty of things that will get her locked up for life.” Regina says, because she does. She knows about the fraud, the secret deals on the side, the shady men hired to take people out. Out from under the control that Cora has imposed on her for a year now, Regina can remember all the things that she’s found out, all the incriminating bits of information that had been wiped from her mind.    
  
“Oh, Regina.” Cora laughs, eyes latching onto her daughter with cold fury. “I’d have thought you’d have a bit more loyalty than that.” 

 

“You took my heart from my chest, Mother.” Regina growls, anger lighting up in an instant. “Any kind of familial loyalty I once felt for you disappeared the moment you took my free will away.” 

 

That’s a lie, of course, because here Regina is trying to convince Emma not to kill Cora. Regina knows that if it had been anyone else who had threatened Henry the way Cora has, she’d walk out of this room without a second glance and let Emma do whatever she wants but- this is her mother. And its Emma. Emma, who will cross over into something darker if she does this. 

 

Emma is silent. “She’s a danger, Regina.” 

 

“I know.” Regina says. “Let’s just get my- my heart back, okay? Please, Emma.” 

 

Emma’s face remains stony, but she holds out her hand. “The heart, Cora.” 

 

Cora’s face shutters, and she draws Regina’s heart close to her, guarding it. “And what do I get in return?” 

 

Nausea curls like a wave in Regina’s throat, her mother using her  _ heart  _ as a bargaining tool, but she refocuses on the conversation. “Your life.” She says, faintly. “You have no more power, Mother. It’s over.” 

 

Cora stares at her, hand still holding the heart. “I’m sorry, my dear. But I come first. I may not be able to control you anymore but I can still-” The hand around the heart tightens. 

 

A searing pain erupts in Regina’s chest, and she falls to her knees, eyes rolling backwards. She tries to make a sound, above the buzzing in her ears, but all that comes from her is a choking sound, making it harder and harder to breathe. “Mo-ther-” 

 

“What are you doing!” She can hear Emma shout, as though from a distance. “She’s your  _ daughter!”  _

 

“And I’ll kill her if you don’t let me go.” Cora snarls back. “Don’t think I wo-” 

 

The pressure on Regina’s heart releases, and her head clears, the sound of someone struggling for breath filling her ears. She looks over at Emma, whose hands are outstretched in a winding motion, and then to Cora, who scrabbles at her throat, gasping for air, Regina’s heart on the floor next to her. 

 

“What are you doing!” Regina calls over to Emma. 

 

“Taking the air out of her body.” Emma calls back, focused and dark. “Get your heart, Regina!” 

 

Regina stumbles over to where the heart lays, feeling the warmth of it pulse between her fingers as she picks it up. “Oh.” She mutters, feeling something in her chest lighten. “I- this is-” 

 

Her mother’s hand swipes at her, grasping her wrist, and Regina looks over at Cora, whose eyes lock with hers. Regina sighs. 

  
“Emma, stop.” 

  
“Why?” Emma says, and Regina walks over to her, and places her heart in her free hand. 

 

“Because everything's okay.” 

 

Emma looks down at the heart in her hand, and slowly, her hand lowers. Cora gasps for breath, retching on the floor, and Emma turns her back on her, towards Regina. She grabs Regina in a desperate hug, both of them clutching the other tightly as Emma presses a shaking hand against Regina’s head. “You’re okay.” Regina murmurs. “It’s okay.” 

 

Slowly, Emma releases her, and the two of them gaze down at the beating heart in Regina’s hand. 

 

“It’s going to be okay.” Emma murmurs. “Should I-” She gestures at the heart, and then at Regina, and Regina nods. 

 

“I don’t know how you do it, but I suppose you just-” Regina mimes the action. “The opposite of pulling it out, I suppose.” 

 

Emma puts the heart against her chest, and then pushes. For a moment, nothing happens, and Regina looks down to check whether the heart is still there. 

 

And then- 

 

It’s as though every light has been turned on in a house that has been dark for so long, dust flying off the surfaces, the gardens revitalising. Every part of Regina feels alive for the first time in so long, and she draws in a deep breath, reveling in the feeling. Then, she catches Emma’s eyes. 

 

“Emma-” 

 

There’s love there. It’s not a revelation, or like a sudden influx of emotion, but rather a well worn, familiar love, that she finds tucked away. It’s there, as though its always been, same as her love for Henry. Rather than something being returned to her, or being discovered, Regina is able to feel love that has been there for so long for the first time. 

 

“Emma.” She whispers, eyes drinking in the face of the other woman, before pulling her towards her and peppering kisses against the other woman’s face, laughter spilling out from her. Emma laughs with her, twirling them around. “I can feel again.” Regina mutters, holding Emma tightly. Then, she leans back, nerves swirling in her stomach as she does the last test. 

 

She holds out her palm, willing with every cell in her body, and out from it grows a bright red rose, its petals soft and luscious, stalk strong and proud. Regina draws in a breath, a choking, sobbing sound. “Oh, I’ve missed you.” She murmurs to the flower, and then plucks it from her palm, holding it out to Emma.

 

“For me?” Emma asks, eyes crinkling with the smile that lights up her entire face. She takes the rose, holding it tightly against her chest. “It’s beautiful.” 

 

Regina lets her eyes roam over Emma’s face, taking in every detail. How had she not realised her heart had been missing? Everything seems so much brighter, so much more  _ light  _ and she wants laugh, giddy on the soaring sensation that is currently galloping through her body. She draws Emma closer to her instead, stroking a thumb over the other woman’s cheeks. 

 

“I’m pretty sure I’ve been trying to say I love you for a while, Emma Swan.” Regina murmurs fondly. “Just didn’t realise that I couldn’t, until now. But there you go. I love you.” 

 

Emma’s eyes light up, and she leans in, as does Regina-

 

Suddenly Emma’s eyes fly open, and she gasps, and Regina looks at the room for the first time and-

 

Cora’s hand is stuck in Emma’s back, slowly drawing out the heart that resides there. 

 

_ No.  _

 

_ Not again.  _

 

Regina’s arms fly out before she can stop herself, calling forth the vines that she so dearly wanted to put to rest. The poison is present this time, as are the deadly spiked thorns, and they sink into Cora, the poison working fast. 

 

Cora drops to the floor, her veins turning black as the poison creeps through her blood with deadly speed, Emma’s heart remaining in her chest. 

 

Regina crouches beside her mother, unable to find the right words to say. This is the final moment, the last revenge, and there’s nothing left to say. “Why’d you have to do that?” Regina asks, clutching her mother’s hand as she gasps for breath. “Why can’t you just  _ ever  _ leave things?” 

 

“I had to win.” Cora growls, eyes watery. “I had to-” She coughs. 

 

“Winning.” Regina says bitterly, and feels Emma’s arm encircle her shoulders protectively. “Well I guess I’ve won, Mother. Are you finally proud?” 

 

Cora’s eyes find hers, and it's as though something shifts. Her mother’s hand squeezes hers tightly. “Immensely.” 

 

The hand grows slack and limp in Regina’s grasp, and she bows her head, hating that tears still fall from her eyes. 

 

************

 

The final irony is that no one ever knows of Cora’s crimes. Regina tells the police that the Evil Queen got to her mother, before the Swan could stop her. And that the Swan did, eventually. 

 

The Evil Queen is gone, after having killed the heroic mayor, and the Swan has been left victorious in the end. 

 

But despite the inaccuracy of the tale that is being told all over the city, Regina can breathe for the first time in a year. Her flower shop flourishes, and things return to normal. 

 

Henry seems to recover- as much as he can. When Regina first returned down the stairs after her fight with Cora, and scooped him up in her arms he didn’t let go for five hours; clinging on to his mother and the fact that her embrace was no longer fragile and awkward but filled with love that he knew once again was possible for his mother to feel. And Regina heals as well, when the worry in Henry’s eyes fade, and he laughs with freedom and carelessness. She grows him flowers again, and the house fills up with them, in ever vase, garlands of daisies hanging above entrances. The house shines, bright, and the Mills family, plus one, feels whole again. 

 

And there’s Emma, by her side. Holding her hand every step of the way, turning up with coffee and eager kisses that soothe the ache in Regina’s heart every time she turns towards a newspaper stand and sees her mother’s death splashed across the front page. They’re finally together, and while not everything is perfect, it's  _ something.  _

 

They clear out her mother’s vault together, returning hearts anonymously, figuring out how to make sure that no one will remember the fact that they had no heart for god knows how long. Her mother’s magic works well enough that the heart’s magic stays intact. 

 

The final box, however, that they happen upon in the vault, is shoved into a corner, almost carelessly, in a rough wooden box. Regina’s fingers trail across it, frowning. “This is-” Her breath catches in her throat. “This is the jewelry box I made for my mother when I was five.” She murmurs. “That’s the last good memory I have with her. I gave it to her on Mother’s Day. Breakfast in bed, and-  _ this. _ ” 

 

Emma comes to stand beside her, taking the box out of her shaking hands. Opens it. Both of them recoil instantly at the sight of a black heart, rotting and old. A few seconds later, it crumbles to dust. 

 

Regina’s face smoothes over, unreadable, and when she opens her mouth, the sentence comes out flat and cold. “That was her heart.” She says, and so many things suddenly make sense. 

 

“I’m so sorry, Regina.” Emma says, taking her hand. Regina shakes her head, and takes the box back from Emma. Then, tapping her foot, she opens a hole in the ground, and without a second of hesitation, drops the box in the hole, sealing it over with another tap. Emma watches her, mouth slightly agape. 

 

“Coming?” Regina asks, turning towards the exit. She glances at Emma’s face, which is stricken, and purses her lips. 

 

“I always suspected. In the back of my mind, it was always there, even if my memories didn’t tell me that she had that power. Something was….” She sighs. “And, I just- I can’t bring myself to care anymore. I’ve wasted my life waiting for a mother with a heart, and I don’t want to want to spend another moment waiting.” 

 

Emma nods, slowly, and Regina reaches out a hand. Emma takes it, and together they walk out of the vault, the entrance sealing over. 

 

************

 

And slowly, they settle into life. 

 

There’s lazy mornings, with soft kisses, hard kisses and kisses that knock the breath out of the other, hair tangled together as they lie against the pillows. There’s dubious eggs and bacon made by Emma, who, as voted by Henry and Regina, should stick to tea and coffee as a rule. One morning, there’s a dog sitting outside Regina and Emma’s bedroom, Henry’s pleading eyes greeting them. Another time, it’s a shield, Henry threatening not to lower it until they stop bickering over whose turn it was to do the dishes. 

 

The dog stays, the shield is lowered and Henry duly punished, and their family becomes such a stereotypical domestic scene of massive proportions that Regina sometimes has to pinch herself. 

 

She has Emma,  _ Emma Swan  _ to wake up to every morning and read books next to, and eat dinner with, and grow flowers for. Emma Swan who kisses her like her life depends on it, smiling slyly as she sweeps Regina’s feet out from under her to fly her through the air like some kind of movie superhero before dropping her on the bed with all the suaveness she could never possess on her feet. For the first time in her life, Regina is free, and she loves with her whole heart. 

 

There’s an element of rediscovery, as well, however, because Regina with a heart is much more alive than Regina without a heart ever was. Emma finds herself constantly surprised as Regina leans in after a dinner out to kiss her with a kind of passion that only comes from someone who loves the other person with all their heart, or when Regina looks at her with softness in her eyes. There’s rediscovery in terms of the faces behind the masks, and laughter as each of them recall the innuendos and puns that used to dominate their fights. 

 

Of course, there’s a dull shadow that floats over the house on particular days; days when Regina happens across a picture frame in the attic that shows her, age three, and her parents, birthday cake smeared across her laughing mother’s face, her father pressing a kiss to her mother’s auburn hair with Regina’s messy hands waving impatiently. It reminds her of another life, where things were right until they were wrong. 

 

But those days happen rarely, and when they do, Emma is there to soothe the pain away. They are both there, when the other wakes up from a nightmare, Emma’s dreams often consisting of blank faces and blood spilling from bodies, and Regina’s of a boy she loved so dearly sliding to the floor with no heart in his chest but even then. Even then, they hold each other close and are sure that things will be okay. 

 

And Henry grows older, calls Emma “Ma” that has the woman smiling for days until her cheeks hurt, and Regina growing primroses and carnations and her beautiful, underestimated sunflowers for the customers that trip into her shop on a rainy day. The Enchanted Florist now is brighter, each flower incandescent with a kind of glow that no one knows how to pinpoint, because after all they’re just  _ flowers.  _

 

“I love you.” Regina will whisper to Emma in the dark, hands tangled together. “I love you so, so much.” 

 

“I know.” Emma will whisper back, finally able to look into Regina’s eyes and see that spark that had been missing for so long. 

 

There is love, and life, and all sorts of things in between, both hearts which are finally where they are meant to be, belonging firmly to a person that treats it like the precious object it is meant to be. 

  
  


  1. **an epilogue, of sorts.**



 

“I don’t know.” Emma says, hands wringing. Regina sighs where she’s sitting, and grasps Emma’s hands. 

 

“We talked about this. It’s going to be fine. You said you wanted to.” 

 

Emma’s head droops, slightly. “Yeah but I didn’t realise I would get so nervous!” She whines, and then glances out at the house on the street, bundle of nerves growing in her stomach. 

 

Regina rolls her eyes, almost fondly. “Yes, you did. Which is why you told me to tell you to get your ass out of the car and stop being a wimp.” 

 

Emma sighs. “What would I do without a girlfriend like you?”  

 

“Fiancee!” Henry pipes up from the back seat. “And what would you do without an awesome son like me, hey Ma?” 

 

Now it’s Emma turn to roll her eyes. “You’ve done nothing but complain the entire drive, Henry.” 

 

“I don’t get why we have to visit these people.” Henry pouts. “Also, I forgot my headphones so I had to listen to your boring old music.” 

 

“Queen is classic, how dare you!” Emma says, outraged, and Regina’s lips quirk fondly. 

 

“I’ve explained why.” Regina says, twisting her head to look round at her son. “These are Emma’s parents, Henry, and Emma needs to make her peace with them. Also-” She glances furtively at Emma who stares resolutely ahead. “They have advice on how to protect and train you so that your powers don’t-” She winces. “Don’t get out of control.” 

 

Henry groans. “It was once, Mom! Once that I accidentally allowed my shield to go up during football. And everyone just thought that Liam tripped, not bounced into my shield. It’s okay.” 

 

“You’re fourteen now, Hen.” Emma says, softly. “You’ve got to start some kind of training, training that I don’t know how to give and that Regina wants so you can be safe. My parents  _ know  _ how to handle kids with powers.” 

 

“They trained you, why can’t you train me?” Henry murmurs, sulkily.

 

“Because I don’t want to draw any attention to you. I have enemies, and if I’m  _ ever  _ seen training you-” 

 

“They could come after me, _ I know _ Ma _. _ ” Henry mutters, and then sighs. “Alright, fine then.” He unbuckles his seatbelt, and opens the car door. “Come on then.” 

 

The car door slams behind him, and Regina chuckles fondly. “He’s quite the teenager, isn’t he?” 

 

“Don’t you miss when he was just a wide eyed little kid with a penchant for Iron Man?” Emma replies fondly, and squeezes Regina’s hand, taking a deep breath. 

 

“It’s going to be okay, Emma.” Regina says, softly. “I know they hurt you but-” 

 

“But they regret it, I know.” Emma says. 

  
A few months ago, Emma had received a letter from her parents. In it, they’d apologized for everything that had happened, and what they had forced Emma to do. They’d explained that once the Swan had reappeared, they’d wanted to make contact with Emma, but weren’t sure how, and it was only when news of the former Mayor’s daughter getting engaged with the Captain of the police force, Emma Swan, had made a small article in the newspapers including a photo, that they’d realised her identity. 

 

They also cited their wish to make amends, and meet Regina. 

 

“I just don’t want Henry to get hurt.” Emma says, looking at the boy who is loitering by the gate with a pronounced slouch. A few years ago, it had been decided that Henry who had taken to calling Emma “Ma” should never have to use his powers in the way that Emma and Regina had to. So they’d done nothing about the fact that Henry could conjure some kind of forcefield- not until it had accidentally flickered up just as Henry was about to get tackled by a member of an opposing team during a regular practice of football. 

 

“Our son has us.” Regina replies. “We had no one. But we will always protect him. Even if he thinks that he doesn’t need us, or that we need him. We will always,  _ always,  _ protect him.” She then adds, as an afterthought, “And if not us, Marian. She nearly killed you after you scooped him up from her back garden the one time.” 

 

A small smile plays against Emma’s lips, and she kisses Regina quickly, resting her forehead against the other woman’s. “What would I do without you, huh?” 

 

“Starve, probably.” Regina snorts. “Those eggs you made this morning were atrocious, dear.” 

 

“Was trying to help.” Emma mumbles, before kissing Regina again, this time more slowly. She already knows that Henry will probably be scowling, making disgusted faces at the car, the thought making her smile slightly. They break apart, and Emma sighs. “Alright, let’s do this.”

 

She reaches for her door handle, but Regina’s hand stops her. “Wait.” 

 

Emma turns back around, and finds a red rose lifting out of Regina’s palm. Plucking it, Emma inhales the scent, and then takes a petal, tucking it in the breast pocket of her leather jacket. Eyes twinkling, she pats the pocket over her heart. Sometimes she is suddenly reminded how much she adores the Regina who looks at her with light in her eyes, who loves her with all her heart. Raising Regina’s hand, she kisses it softly with a chuckle, thumb hitching on the ring that sits squarely on Regina’s left hand, the diamonds unfurling out into the design of a flower. Generic, but Regina had laughed and shoved it on her hand so quickly when Emma had presented it to her that she had no second thoughts about the cliche that it was. 

 

“For good luck. A reminder that you have a family who loves you.” Regina says, eyes serious. “And I’ll be there, every step of the way.” 

 

“Wouldn’t expect anything else.” 

 

As they walk up to the front door, hands entwined, Regina’s heart beats with the certainty that everything- perhaps not constantly but certainly always- is going to be okay. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> phew.... finally finished it! Thank you to all those who reviewed and read, and I hope you enjoyed it and have had as much fun reading it as I have had writing it.


End file.
